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The Role of New Technology in Promoting Public Health during Crises

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Communication and Informatics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 41226

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Alice Cheng

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Guest Editor

Department of Communication, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
Interests: social media effects; artificial intelligence; public health; crisis communication

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As unpredictable incidents, crises could ruin the reputation of an organization and lead to negative outcomes for the public. The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, for instance, a disease outbreak caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has significantly affected public health in a global context. Millions of people have lost their lives due to COVID-19, and modern society is facing uncertainties due to this disease and continuous social distancing measures. New technologies such as social media platforms play a critical role in fulfilling diverse needs, such as information needs, social needs such as connecting with friends and family, and the fun or enjoyment obtained from entertainment. AI-powered chatbots could help to facilitate public mental health by instantly responding to patients’ questions. Smart mobile devices make health information accessible anytime and anywhere.

On the one hand, the wide application of new technologies such as social media, artificial intelligence (AI) powered tools, or smartphone mobile devices is paramount for public health, especially during a crisis situation such as the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, while these new types of technologies transform traditional health communication and lead to innovative digital solutions, they face challenges from misinformation or disinformation during crises. How to overcome public hesitation and promote COVID-19 vaccine acceptance via new technologies might become an important research topic.

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) focuses on the role of new technologies, such as social media, AI-powered chatbots, or other smart mobile devices, in promoting public health during crises. Academic research articles, commentaries, or case reports are welcome in this Special Issue. We will accept submissions from different disciplines, such as public health, crisis communication, and risk assessment and management.

Dr. Alice Cheng
Guest Editor

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Keywords

public health
crisis management
risk assessment
vaccine hesitation
social media
artificial intelligence
health communication
media impact
health impact
digital health
mobile devices
covid-19 pandemic
misinformation

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 1401 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Tweets That Matter: Exploring the Solutions to Maternal Mortality in the United States Discussed by Advocacy Organizations on Twitter

by Diane Ezeh Aruah, Yvonne Henshaw and Kim Walsh-Childers

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(9), 5617; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph20095617 - 24 Apr 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1879

Abstract

This study investigated maternal mortality solutions mentioned on Twitter by maternal health advocacy organizations in the United States. Using qualitative content analysis, we examined tweets from 20 advocacy organizations and found that the majority of the tweets focused on policy, healthcare, community, and individual solutions. The most tweeted policy solutions include tweets advocating signing birth equity, paid family leave, Medicaid expansion, and reproductive justice bills, whereas the most tweeted community solutions were funding community organizations, hiring community doulas, and building community health centers. The most tweeted individual solutions were storytelling, self-advocacy, and self-care. These findings provide insights into the perspectives and priorities of advocacy organizations working to address maternal mortality in the United States and can inform future efforts to combat this critical public health issue. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of New Technology in Promoting Public Health during Crises)

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20 pages, 1268 KiB

Open AccessArticle

When Artificial Intelligence Voices Human Concerns: The Paradoxical Effects of AI Voice on Climate Risk Perception and Pro-Environmental Behavioral Intention

by Binbin Ni, Fuzhong Wu and Qing Huang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(4), 3772; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph20043772 - 20 Feb 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2899

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled text-to-speech transformation has been widely employed to deliver online information in various fields. However, few studies have investigated the effect of the AI voice in environmental risk communication, especially in the field of climate change, an issue that poses a severe threat to global public health. To address this gap, the current study examines how the AI voice impacts the persuasive outcome of climate-related information and the potential mechanism that underlies this process. Based on the social and affect heuristics of voice, we propose a serial mediation model to test the effect of climate-related information delivered by different voice types (AI voice vs. human voice) in eliciting risk perception and motivating pro-environmental behavioral intention. Through an online auditory experiment (N = 397), we found the following. First, the AI voice was as effective as the human voice in eliciting risk perception and motivating pro-environmental behavioral intention. Second, compared with human voice, the AI voice yielded a listener’s lower level of perceived identity oneness with the speaker, which decreased risk perception and subsequently inhibited pro-environmental behavioral intention. Third, compared with human voice, the AI voice produced a higher level of auditory fear, which increased risk perception and thereby led to stronger pro-environmental behavioral intention. The paradoxical role of the AI voice and its wise use in environmental risk communication for promoting global public health are discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of New Technology in Promoting Public Health during Crises)

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16 pages, 886 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Influence of SNS on Policy Support to Mitigate Public Health Crises: The Mediating Role of General and Personal Risk Perceptions

by Soohee Kim

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(17), 10933; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph191710933 - 01 Sep 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1192

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that social networking sites (SNS) motivate people, in the form of civic engagement, in times of crisis. Yet, there is a lack of empirical investigations that help to understand how SNS use increases civic judgment or participatory behavior. In this study, we examine how the use of SNS in a public health crisis is related to policy support for effective mitigation of risk, particularly focusing on the role of two distinct types of risk perceptions—general and personal risk perceptions. Using an online survey conducted on the issue of fine dust pollution in South Korea (N = 510), this study found that reliance on SNS for learning (i.e., SNS learning dependency) is positively associated with general risk perception, which, in turn, promotes policy support. Moreover, the results revealed a serial mediation process in which SNS learning dependency increases general risk perception, which ultimately increases personal risk perception and policy support. Overall, this study suggests that SNS has the potential to facilitate public engagement in a crisis and that individual motivation to engage with a crisis is not just a function of individual or societal-level risk perception but can be a simultaneous function of different levels of risk perceptions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of New Technology in Promoting Public Health during Crises)

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16 pages, 826 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influence of Information Sources on Chinese Parents Regarding COVID-19 Vaccination for Children: An Online Survey

by Kai Li and Fen Zhou

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(12), 7037; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph19127037 - 08 Jun 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2838

Abstract

(1) Aims: This study explored the mechanism by which exposure to different information sources on social media influences Chinese parents’ intention to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. (2) Methods: We developed a research framework based on the Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) theory to illustrate how exposure to information sources on social media increases vaccine confidence and, as a result, parents’ intentions regarding pediatric vaccination. The partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used to test the data collected through an online survey (687 valid samples). (3) Results: The government approval of vaccines fuels vaccination confidence and acts as a mediator between (a) mass media, government new media, and key opinion leaders, and (b) perceived effectiveness and side effects (safety) of vaccines. (4) Conclusions: The mass media, government new media, and key opinion leaders are crucial sources for encouraging parents to vaccinate their children since they boost the vaccination trust. The focus of COVID-19 vaccination promotion should be to strengthen parents’ trust in the government, combined with publicizing the effectiveness and side effects (safety) of vaccines. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of New Technology in Promoting Public Health during Crises)

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16 pages, 1040 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Shared Virtual Reality Experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Exploring the Gratifications and Effects of Engagement with Immersive Videos

by Yang Cheng, Yuan Wang and Wen Zhao

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(9), 5056; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph19095056 - 21 Apr 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 11972

Abstract

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and recent economic recession have been impacting many people’s mental health. The experience of social distancing created new hardships for people who already reported symptoms of depression or anxiety. In these circumstances, new technologies, such as immersive virtual reality (VR) videos, could serve as useful tools for facilitating interactions, emotional sharing, and information processing within a virtual environment. In this study, researchers aimed to enrich the information processing literature by focusing on the uses and gratifications of 360-degree VR videos during the pandemic. Through employing survey research with 1422 participants located in the U.S. and structural equation modeling for data analysis, this study found that five types of gratification, including utilitarian (i.e., navigation), hedonic (i.e., enjoyment), sensual (i.e., realism), social (i.e., community), and symbolic (i.e., coolness), significantly motivated users to use such immersive videos. Simultaneously, data demonstrated that these five types of gratification could influence users’ cognitive engagement with virtual content. In addition, such VR engagement facilitated users’ positive attitudes toward immersive videos and continued usage of them. The findings provided practical implications for COVID-19 global recovery as well. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of New Technology in Promoting Public Health during Crises)

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17 pages, 1764 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Shot in the Arm for Vaccination Intention: The Media and the Health Belief Model in Three Chinese Societies

by Ruoheng Liu, Yi-Hui Christine Huang, Jie Sun, Jennifer Lau and Qinxian Cai

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(6), 3705; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph19063705 - 20 Mar 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2197

Abstract

This large-sample study of three Chinese societies—Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong—demonstrates the importance of media exposure for people’s vaccination intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic. By employing two constructs (i.e., perceived susceptibility and severity) in the health belief model (HBM), the study identifies significant indirect effects of media exposure on individuals’ vaccination intention in all three Chinese societies. That said, media trust negatively moderated the path from perceived severity to vaccination intention in Mainland China and Taiwan. In these two societies, the higher an individual’s trust in media, the less influence of perceived severity on his/her vaccination intention. It suggests that the level of trust in media is a contextual factor in explaining individuals’ decision-making on health issues. Generally, the combination of the HBM and media trust has been proven to be useful for understanding individuals’ vaccination intentions. These findings provide practical considerations for governmental agencies, public institutions, and health campaign designers to promote vaccination in the pandemic. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of New Technology in Promoting Public Health during Crises)

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14 pages, 1194 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Social Bots’ Involvement in the COVID-19 Vaccine Discussions on Twitter

by Menghan Zhang, Xue Qi, Ze Chen and Jun Liu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(3), 1651; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph19031651 - 31 Jan 2022

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3635

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, social media served as an important channel for the public to obtain health information and disseminate opinions when offline communication was severely hindered. Yet the emergence of social bots influencing social media conversations about public health threats will require researchers and practitioners to develop new communication strategies considering their influence. So far, little is known as to what extent social bots have been involved in COVID-19 vaccine-related discussions and debates on social media. This work selected a period of nearly 9 months after the approval of the first COVID-19 vaccines to detect social bots and performed high-frequency word analysis for both social bot-generated and human-generated tweets, thus working out the extent to which social bots participated in the discussion on the COVID-19 vaccine on Twitter and their participation features. Then, a textual analysis was performed on the content of tweets. The findings revealed that 8.87% of the users were social bots, with 11% of tweets in the corpus. Besides, social bots remained active over three periods. High-frequency words in the discussions of social bots and human users on vaccine topics were similar within the three peaks of discourse. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of New Technology in Promoting Public Health during Crises)

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15 pages, 744 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing Mechanisms Underlying the Sharing of Official and Unofficial Information during a Pandemic

by Stephanie Jean Tsang, Xinyan Zhao and Yi-Ru Regina Chen

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(24), 13298; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph182413298 - 17 Dec 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2988

Abstract

The COVID-19 disease outbreak has seen mixed information flows comprising top-down communication from health authorities to the public and citizen-to-citizen communication. This study aimed to identify mechanisms underlying the sharing of official versus unofficial information during the outbreak. Survey findings based on a nationally representative U.S. sample (N = 856) showed that individuals’ predispositions affected their information consumption and affective experiences, leading to distinct types of information-sharing behaviors. While anger toward the U.S. government’s outbreak response was directly associated with unofficial information sharing, anxiety was directly associated with official information sharing. These findings enhance our understanding of the propagation of different kinds of pandemic information and provide implications for public education on information verification based on source authoritativeness. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of New Technology in Promoting Public Health during Crises)

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19 pages, 1022 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Support through Social Media and Online Class Participation to Enhance Psychological Resilience

by Muhammad Zaheer Asghar, Seema Arif, Elena Barbera, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen and Ercan Kocayoruk

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(22), 11962; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph182211962 - 14 Nov 2021

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 3762

Abstract

Social support was an important factor in minimizing the effect of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. This research aimed to study the role of online class participation and social media usage to link the social support available from family and friends to psychological resilience among pre-service special education teachers against the negative psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. A survey was conducted with 377 pre-service special needs education (SNE) teachers enrolled at universities in Pakistan. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied using Smart-PLS 3.2.8. Results revealed that social media and online class participation played a mediating role between social support and psychological resilience in the pre-service special needs education (SNE) teachers studied. Teacher education institutions can devise strategies to develop social media platforms for student socialization during an emergency to help build resilience against the negative psychological effects of social isolation. Future studies could be conducted to adapt instructions and curricula to social media environments for education in an emergency. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of New Technology in Promoting Public Health during Crises)

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16 pages, 526 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Role of Discrete Emotions in Risk Perception and Policy Support during Public Health Crises: The Moderation Effect of SNS Dependency

by Soohee Kim

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(21), 11654; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph182111654 - 06 Nov 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1777

Abstract

People often experience strong emotions during public health crises. This study examines how these emotions shape the perception of risk and support for policies to address the risk. In particular, this study explores the moderating effects of social network services (SNS) use in the process, considering that SNS have become a prominent communication platform during crises. Using a nationwide online survey conducted on the issue of fine dust air pollution in South Korea, this study found that feelings of anxiety, anger, and sadness about the risk issue were positively related to risk perception and policy support, while the relative effects of these emotions varied. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that reliance on SNS for learning (i.e., SNS learning dependency) moderated the influence of anxiety: the positive impact of anxiety was greater among those who used SNS for learning, while no such effects were found among those who used SNS for play or entertainment (i.e., SNS entertainment dependency). The implications of this study are discussed in terms of the distinct role emotions play in public responses to risks and the importance of considering the impact of SNS on public perceptions and judgments in this era of social media. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of New Technology in Promoting Public Health during Crises)

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17 pages, 609 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Duanzi as Networked Practice: How Online Satire Shapes Psychological Well-Being, Social Support, and Issue Knowledge for Chinese with Different Social Capital during COVID-19 Outbreaks

by Ji Pan, Gang (Kevin) Han and Ran Wei

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(18), 9783; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph18189783 - 17 Sep 2021

Viewed by 2907

Abstract

Practices oriented to digital technologies are being invented to change how people cope with crises. This study examines how Chinese netizens’ networked practices (e.g., liking, sharing, or commenting) with COVID-19 related duanzi (short online satires) influenced their psychological well-being, external social support, and issue knowledge during the pandemic. The role of social capital in moderating these relations is explored. Findings from the survey demonstrate that the act of “liking” a COVID-19 duanzi on WeChat has become a routine practice for Chinese netizens to kill time during the quarantine. However, the more bonding social capital one already had, the less they depended on duanzi “liking” to kill their boredom. Those less supported outside the family household, or less knowledgeable about the virus were also more likely to share a COVID-19 duanzi. Bonding social capital promotes one’s well-being, therefore, the positive psychological effect of duanzi sharing or commenting grows more pronounced for netizens with more bonding social capital. Bridging social capital brought external social support. Netizens with more bridging social capital obtained more external support and more COVID-19 knowledge from duanzi sharing. The theoretical and practical implications are elaborated in the conclusions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of New Technology in Promoting Public Health during Crises)

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