Xie Jingzhong, Liu Liqun
School of Journalism and Communication, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China.
National Institute of Cultural Development, Wuhan, University, Wuhan, 430072, China.
BMC Public Health. 2022 Apr 22;22(1):805. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13213-w.
Social media has become an essential tool to implement risk communication, giving health information could gain more exposure by retweeting during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Content analysis was conducted to scrutinize the official (national and provincial) public health agencies' Weibo posts (n = 4396) to identify features of information sources and message features (structure, style content). The Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial (ZINB) model was adopted to analyze the association between these features and the frequency of the retweeted messages.
Results indicated that features of source and health information, such as structure, style, and content, were correlated to retweeting. The results of IRR further suggested that compared to provincial accounts, messages from national health authorities' accounts gained more retweeting. Regarding the information features, messages with hashtags#, picture, video have been retweeted more often than messages without any of these features respectively, while messages with hyperlinks received fewer retweets than messages without hyperlinks. In terms of the information structure, messages with the sentiment (!) have been retweeted more frequently than messages without sentiment. Concerning content, messages containing severity, reassurance, efficacy, and action frame have been retweeted with higher frequency, while messages with uncertainty frames have been retweeted less often.
Health organizations and medical professionals should pay close attention to the features of health information sources, structures, style, and content to satisfy the public's information needs and preferences to promote the public's health engagement. Designing suitable information systems and promoting health communication strategies during different pandemic stages may improve public awareness of the COVID-19, alleviate negative emotions, and promote preventive measures to curb the spread of the virus.
社交媒体已成为实施风险沟通的重要工具，在新冠疫情期间，发布健康信息可通过转发获得更多曝光。
进行内容分析，以审查官方（国家和省级）公共卫生机构的微博帖子（n = 4396），以确定信息来源的特征和信息特征（结构、风格、内容）。采用零膨胀负二项式（ZINB）模型分析这些特征与转发信息频率之间的关联。
结果表明，来源和健康信息的特征，如结构、风格和内容，与转发相关。IRR结果进一步表明，与省级账号相比，来自国家卫生当局账号的信息获得了更多转发。关于信息特征，带有#标签、图片、视频的信息分别比没有这些特征的信息被转发得更频繁，而带有超链接的信息比没有超链接的信息获得的转发更少。在信息结构方面，带有情感（！）的信息比没有情感的信息被转发得更频繁。在内容方面，包含严重性、安慰性、有效性和行动框架的信息被转发的频率更高，而带有不确定性框架的信息被转发的频率较低。
卫生组织和医学专业人员应密切关注健康信息来源、结构、风格和内容的特征，以满足公众的信息需求和偏好，促进公众的健康参与。在不同疫情阶段设计合适的信息系统并推广健康传播策略，可能会提高公众对新冠疫情的认识，缓解负面情绪，并促进预防措施以遏制病毒传播。
