Zhang Xinmiao, Zheng Han, Zeng Yueliang, Zou Jiayi, Zhao Lin
School of Sociology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
Digit Health. 2024 Feb 20;10:20552076241233138. doi: 10.1177/20552076241233138. eCollection 2024 Jan-Dec.
Cyberchondria is increasingly recognized as the dark side of digital health, given the pervasive use of the internet as a main source of health information in people's daily lives. While previous studies have identified many factors contributing to cyberchondria, there is a dearth of research on the impact of health-related advertisements. Therefore, this study adopts the stressor-strain-outcome (SSO) model to investigate how health-related advertising interference is directly and indirectly related to cyberchondria.
To empirically validate the proposed research model, we conducted an online survey with 437 internet users with medical information seeking experience in China. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the survey data.
Our findings revealed a positive, direct association between health-related advertising interference and cyberchondria. Meanwhile, advertising interference was positively related to both information overload and information irrelevance, with the former further predicting cyberchondria. Moreover, doctor-patient communication weakened the positive effect of information overload on cyberchondria.
The study not only theoretically contributes to the literature by theorizing the relationship between health-related advertising interference and cyberchondria but also practically underlines the pivotal role of effective doctor-patient communication in reducing the development of cyberchondria.
鉴于互联网在人们日常生活中作为健康信息主要来源的广泛使用，网络疑病症日益被视为数字健康的阴暗面。虽然先前的研究已经确定了许多导致网络疑病症的因素，但关于健康相关广告影响的研究却很匮乏。因此，本研究采用压力源-压力-结果（SSO）模型来调查健康相关广告干扰如何直接和间接地与网络疑病症相关联。
为了实证验证所提出的研究模型，我们对437名有医疗信息搜索经验的中国互联网用户进行了在线调查。采用结构方程模型（SEM）来分析调查数据。
我们的研究结果揭示了健康相关广告干扰与网络疑病症之间存在正向直接关联。同时，广告干扰与信息过载和信息不相关均呈正相关，前者进一步预测了网络疑病症。此外，医患沟通削弱了信息过载对网络疑病症的正向影响。
该研究不仅在理论上通过对健康相关广告干扰与网络疑病症之间的关系进行理论化，为文献做出了贡献，而且在实践中强调了有效的医患沟通在减少网络疑病症发生方面的关键作用。
