Wu Rui-Yao, Ge Lin-Feng, Zhong Bao-Liang
Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Wuhan Mental Health Center, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430012, Hubei Province, China.
Department of Psychiatry, Wuhan Mental Health Center, Wuhan 430012, Hubei Province, China.
World J Psychiatry. 2025 Apr 19;15(4):104625. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i4.104625.
Examining patterns of media consumption and their associations with mental health outcomes in the general population during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has implications for public mental health in future pandemics.
To investigate patterns of media consumption and their associations with depressive and anxiety symptoms among adults affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A total of 8473 adults were recruited through snowball sampling for an online cross-sectional survey. The participants were asked to report the three media sources from which they most frequently acquired knowledge about COVID-19 from a checklist of nine media sources. Depression and anxiety were assessed with the Patient Health Questionnaire and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, respectively. A two-step cluster analysis was performed to identify distinct clusters of consumption of media sources.
Seven clusters were identified. The lowest prevalence of depression and anxiety (29.1% and 22.8%, respectively) was observed in cluster one, which was labeled "television and news portals and clients, minimal social media". The highest prevalence of depression (43.1%) was observed in cluster three, labeled "WeChat, MicroBlog, and news portals, minimal traditional media". The greatest prevalence of anxiety (35.8%) was observed in cluster seven, which was labeled "news clients and WeChat, no newspaper, radio, or news portals". Relative to cluster one, a significantly elevated risk of depression and anxiety was found in clusters three, six (labeled "news portals and clients, WeChat, no newspaper and radio") and seven (adjusted odds ratio = 1.28-1.46, ≤ 0.011). Multiple logistic regression analyses revealed that the risk of COVID-19 infection and knowledge about COVID-19 partially explained the variations in the prevalence of depression and anxiety across the seven clusters.
Communication policies should be designed to channel crucial pandemic-related information more effectively through traditional and digital media sources. Encouraging the use of these media and implementing regulatory policies to reduce misinformation and rumors on social media, may be effective in mitigating the risk of depression and anxiety among populations affected by the pandemic.
在2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行期间，研究普通人群的媒体消费模式及其与心理健康结果的关联，对未来大流行中的公众心理健康具有重要意义。
调查受COVID-19大流行影响的成年人的媒体消费模式及其与抑郁和焦虑症状的关联。
通过滚雪球抽样招募了8473名成年人进行在线横断面调查。参与者被要求从九种媒体来源清单中报告他们最常从中获取COVID-19知识的三种媒体来源。分别使用患者健康问卷和广泛性焦虑障碍量表评估抑郁和焦虑。进行两步聚类分析以识别媒体来源消费的不同类别。
识别出七个类别。在第一类中观察到抑郁和焦虑的患病率最低（分别为29.1%和22.8%），该类别被标记为“电视、新闻门户网站和客户端，极少使用社交媒体”。在第三类中观察到抑郁的患病率最高（43.1%），该类别被标记为“微信、微博和新闻门户网站，极少使用传统媒体”。在第七类中观察到焦虑的患病率最高（35.8%），该类别被标记为“新闻客户端和微信，不使用报纸、广播或新闻门户网站”。相对于第一类，在第三类、第六类（标记为“新闻门户网站和客户端、微信，不使用报纸和广播”）和第七类中发现抑郁和焦虑风险显著升高（调整后的比值比 = 1.28 - 1.46，P ≤ 0.011）。多元逻辑回归分析显示，COVID-19感染风险和关于COVID-19的知识部分解释了七个类别中抑郁和焦虑患病率的差异。
应设计传播政策，以便更有效地通过传统和数字媒体渠道传播与大流行相关的关键信息。鼓励使用这些媒体并实施监管政策以减少社交媒体上的错误信息和谣言，可能有效地降低受大流行影响人群中抑郁和焦虑的风险。
