Department of Media and Communication & Institute of Social Sciences, Incheon National University, Incheon, South Korea.
Department of Communication and Journalism, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2023 Jul 5;23(1):1290. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-16211-8.
Communication inequalities are important mechanisms linking socioeconomic backgrounds to health outcomes. Guided by the structural influence model of communication, this study examined the intermediate role of health communication in the relationship between education, income, and preventive behavioral intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and South Korea.
The data were collected through two online surveys conducted by two professional research firms in the US (April 1-3, 2020) and South Korea (April 9-16, 2020). To test the mediating role of health communication, as well as the hypothesized relationships in the proposed model, we performed a path analysis using Mplus 6.1.
In analyzing survey data from 1050 American and 1175 Korean adults, we found that one's socioeconomic positions were associated with their intentions to engage in COVID-19 preventive behaviors through affecting their health communication experiences and then efficacious beliefs. Differences in education and income were associated with willingness to engage in preventive behaviors by constraining health communication among people with low levels of education and income. The findings showed notable differences and some similarities between the US and South Korea. For example, while income was positively associated with health communication in both US and South Korea, education was only significantly related to health communication in US but not in South Korea.
This study suggests health communication strategies such as choice of communication channels and messages to promote intention for COVID-19 prevention behaviors in particular consideration of individual differences in socioeconomic positions in countries with different cultural features. Pubic policies and health campaigns can utilize the suggestions to promote efficacy and preventive behavioral intention during early pandemics.
沟通不平等是将社会经济背景与健康结果联系起来的重要机制。本研究以沟通的结构影响模型为指导，考察了健康沟通在美国和韩国 COVID-19 大流行期间在教育、收入与预防行为意向之间的关系中的中介作用。
数据通过美国和韩国的两家专业研究公司进行的两次在线调查收集。为了检验健康沟通的中介作用以及所提出模型中假设关系，我们使用 Mplus 6.1 进行路径分析。
在分析来自 1050 名美国和 1175 名韩国成年人的调查数据时，我们发现一个人的社会经济地位通过影响其健康沟通体验和随后的效能信念，与他们参与 COVID-19 预防行为的意向相关。教育和收入的差异通过限制教育和收入水平较低的人的健康沟通，与参与预防行为的意愿相关。研究结果显示了美国和韩国之间的显著差异和一些相似之处。例如，虽然收入与美国和韩国的健康沟通均呈正相关，但教育仅与美国的健康沟通显著相关，而与韩国无关。
本研究表明，在具有不同文化特征的国家中，考虑到社会经济地位的个体差异，健康沟通策略，如选择沟通渠道和信息，以促进 COVID-19 预防行为的意向。公共政策和健康运动可以利用这些建议在早期大流行期间提高效能和预防行为意向。
