Department of Communication, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA.
School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, PR China.
J Health Commun. 2021 Jan 2;26(1):1-11. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2020.1865486. Epub 2020 Dec 29.
Social media health influencers play an increasingly important role in disseminating health-related information to the public. To explore how health influencers in China communicate with their followers, we conducted a content analysis of the top ten health influencers' posts (n = 1000) on Sina Weibo guided by the Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM) and the transportation theory. These posts were coded in terms of demographic information, topics, message properties (informative, persuasive, and interactive), EPPM variables, and types of evidence (statistical and narrative) used. Results showed that these influencers had a clear emphasis on women's health (OB/GYN diseases and risks related to pregnancy and childcare) and beauty and skincare (in terms of risks and benefits). Overall, they used low fear appeal and high efficacy messages. However, messages containing efficacy information were less likely to be liked. These influencers relied heavily on narrative evidence; however, there was no significant relationship between the use of either narrative or statistical evidence and the number of likes. Differences in the communication strategies in posts about different diseases did exist but were not prevalent.
社交媒体健康影响者在中国扮演着越来越重要的角色，他们向公众传播健康相关信息。为了探索中国的健康影响者如何与他们的粉丝进行沟通，我们根据扩展平行处理模型（EPPM）和迁移理论，对微博上排名前十的健康影响者的 1000 条帖子进行了内容分析。这些帖子从人口统计学信息、主题、信息属性（信息性、说服力和互动性）、EPPM 变量以及使用的证据类型（统计和叙述）进行了编码。结果表明，这些影响者非常关注女性健康（妇产科疾病以及与怀孕和育儿相关的风险）和美容护肤（包括风险和益处）。总体而言，他们使用的信息传达的恐惧诉求较低，而有效性信息较高。然而，含有有效性信息的信息不太可能被点赞。这些影响者严重依赖于叙述性证据；但是，叙述性证据和统计性证据的使用与点赞数量之间没有显著关系。不同疾病相关帖子的沟通策略存在差异，但并不普遍。
