Xiaojing Li|Qinliang Liu
Social Media Use, eHealth Literacy, Disease Knowledge, and Preventive Behaviors in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-Sectional Study on Chinese Netizens
Shanghai Jiao Tong University|Shanghai Jiao Tong University
background since outbreak january 2020 covid19 quickly spread worldwide become global pandemic social media platforms recognized important tools healthpromoting practices public health use social media widespread among public however little known effects social media use health promotion pandemic covid19 objective study aimed explore predictive role social media use public preventive behaviors china covid19 pandemic disease knowledge ehealth literacy moderated relationship social media use preventive behaviors methods national webbased crosssectional survey conducted proportionate probability sampling among 802 chinese internet users netizens february 2020 descriptive statistics pearson correlations hierarchical multiple regressions employed examine explore relationships among variables results almost half 802 study participants male 416 519 average age participants 3265 years 802 participants high education levels 624 777 high income gt5000 us 73629 525 653 married 496 618 good health 486 606 average time social media use approximately 2 3 hours per day mean 234 hours sd 111 frequently used media types public social media mean score 4495 sd 078 aggregated social media mean score 4075 sd 107 social media use frequency 20 plt001 rather time significantly predicted preventive behaviors covid19 respondents also equipped high levels disease knowledge mean score 81510 sd 143 ehealth literacy mean score 3795 sd 059 disease knowledge 11 p001 ehealth literacy 27 plt001 also significant predictors preventive behaviors furthermore ehealth literacy p038 disease knowledge p03 positively moderated relationship social media use frequency preventive behaviors ehealth literacy 07 affected relationship positively disease knowledge 07 affected negatively different social media types differed predicting individuals preventive behaviors covid19 aggregated social media 22 plt001 best predictor followed public social media 14 plt001 professional social media 11 p002 however official social media 02 p597 insignificant predictor conclusions social media effective tool promote behaviors prevent covid19 among public health literacy essential promotion individual health influences extent public engages preventive behaviors pandemic results enrich theoretical paradigm public health management health communication also practical implications pandemic control china countries