School of Media and Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Department of Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
J Med Internet Res. 2024 May 31;26:e49383. doi: 10.2196/49383.
Reducing cancer fatalism is essential because of its detrimental impact on cancer-related preventive behaviors. However, little is known about factors influencing individuals' cancer fatalism in China.
With a general basis of the extended parallel process model, this study aims to examine how distinct cancer-related mental conditions (risk perception and worry) and different information behaviors (information seeking vs avoidance) become associated with cancer fatalism, with an additional assessment of the moderating effect of information usefulness.
Data were drawn from the Health Information National Trends Survey in China, which was conducted in 2017 (N=2358). Structural equation modeling and bootstrapping methods were performed to test a moderated mediation model and hypothesized relationships.
The results showed that cancer risk perception and cancer worry were positively associated with online health information seeking. In addition, cancer worry was positively related to cancer information avoidance. Moreover, online health information seeking was found to reduce cancer fatalism, while cancer information avoidance was positively associated with cancer fatalism. The results also indicated that the perceived usefulness of cancer information moderated this dual-mediation pathway.
The national survey data indicate that cancer mental conditions should not be treated as homogeneous entities, given their varying functions and effects. Apart from disseminating useful cancer information to encourage individuals to adaptively cope with cancer threats, we advocate for health communication programs to reduce cancer information avoidance to alleviate fatalistic beliefs about cancer prevention.
降低癌症宿命论至关重要，因为它会对与癌症相关的预防行为产生不利影响。然而，目前对于影响中国人癌症宿命论的因素知之甚少。
本研究以扩展平行过程模型为一般基础，旨在探讨不同的癌症相关心理状况（风险感知和担忧）和不同的信息行为（信息寻求与回避）如何与癌症宿命论相关联，并进一步评估信息有用性的调节作用。
数据来自 2017 年进行的中国健康信息国家趋势调查（N=2358）。采用结构方程模型和自举方法检验了调节中介模型和假设关系。
结果表明，癌症风险感知和癌症担忧与在线健康信息寻求呈正相关。此外，癌症担忧与癌症信息回避呈正相关。此外，在线健康信息寻求被发现可以降低癌症宿命论，而癌症信息回避与癌症宿命论呈正相关。结果还表明，癌症信息的感知有用性调节了这种双重中介途径。
全国调查数据表明，不应将癌症心理状况视为同质实体，因为它们具有不同的功能和影响。除了传播有用的癌症信息以鼓励个人适应癌症威胁外，我们还倡导健康传播计划减少癌症信息回避，以减轻对癌症预防的宿命论信念。
