Adolescent pursuit of health information online during the COVID-19 pandemic: The roles played by eHealth literacy and psychological distress.

COVID-19 has led to an increase in mental health problems for adolescents. In this study, we examined the factors related to the eHealth literacy of adolescents and how that impacted their pursuit of health information and mental health information online during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed data from the 2020 Taiwan Communication Survey, which involved a total of 1,250 national representative adolescents who completed an online questionnaire.

Cross-Country Comparison of Effects of Early Government Communication on Personal Empowerment during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Taiwan and the United States.

In uncertain times, perceived empowerment in collective contexts can influence personal empowerment. For example, during a pandemic, such as the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, communication from the government, as long as it is effective, should fuel individual empowerment, through a five-step process. Surveys of the general public, conducted two weeks after the first reported deaths from coronavirus in Taiwan and the United States, provide data for a comparative test of this proposed moderated mediation model.

Self-Control-Centered Empowerment Model: Health Consciousness and Health Knowledge as Drivers of Empowerment-Seeking through Health Communication.

This article proposes a self-control-centered model to explain why certain people perceive health messages as credible, attend to health messages, and change their behaviors in accordance with the suggestions in those messages. Such reactions imply empowerment seeking or empowering strategies. The proposed model predicts that people with self-control are more likely to seek empowerment, such that those with stronger self-control are more likely to adopt empowering strategies.

Electrical synapses between mushroom body neurons are critical for consolidated memory retrieval in Drosophila.

Electrical synapses between neurons, also known as gap junctions, are direct cell membrane channels between adjacent neurons. Gap junctions play a role in the synchronization of neuronal network activity; however, their involvement in cognition has not been well characterized. Three-hour olfactory associative memory in Drosophila has two components: consolidated anesthesia-resistant memory (ARM) and labile anesthesia-sensitive memory (ASM).

Mushroom body glycolysis is required for olfactory memory in Drosophila.

Glucose catabolism, also known as glycolysis, is important for energy generation and involves a sequence of enzymatic reactions that convert a glucose molecule into two pyruvate molecules. The glycolysis process generates adenosine triphosphate as a byproduct. In this study, we investigated whether glycolysis plays a role in maintaining neuronal functions in the Drosophila mushroom bodies (MBs), which are generally accepted to be an olfactory learning and memory center.

Behavioral Recommendations in Health Research News as Cues to Action: Self-Relevancy and Self-Efficacy Processes.

This study argues that behavioral recommendations in health news function as cues to action. A proposed self-oriented model seeks to explore the impacts of behavioral recommendations in health research news as cues to action through their influences on self-relevancy and self-efficacy. A content analysis (Study 1) first establishes that health research news commonly features behavioral recommendations.

Additive Expression of Consolidated Memory through Drosophila Mushroom Body Subsets.

Associative olfactory memory in Drosophila has two components called labile anesthesia-sensitive memory and consolidated anesthesia-resistant memory (ARM). Mushroom body (MB) is a brain region critical for the olfactory memory and comprised of 2000 neurons that can be classified into αβ, α'β', and γ neurons. Previously we demonstrated that two parallel pathways mediated ARM consolidation: the serotonergic dorsal paired medial (DPM)-αβ neurons and the octopaminergic anterior paired lateral (APL)-α'β' neurons.

Inaccuracy in health research news: a typology and predictions of scientists' perceptions of the accuracy of research news.

This article introduces an integrated inaccuracy typology to explore the prevalence of inaccurate news coverage of health research. This typology suggests that errors, omissions, and misinterpretations are three common types of inaccuracy; errors and omissions are objective, whereas misinterpretations are subjective. Objective inaccuracy involves errors and omissions in describing the background or substantive information about the research, such as how, when, where, and on whom research was conducted.

Men's and women's responses to two-sided health news coverage: a moderated mediation model.

This study explores how audiences respond to news coverage of food and nutrition topics when that coverage provides either 2-sided (positive and negative) information or 1-sided, unanimously positive information. A moderated mediation model helps clarify the different impacts of 2- and 1-sided news coverage and the psychological processes they elicit. Specifically, gender moderates the relative effects of 1- and 2-sided news stories; ambivalent feelings play a mediating role in the process.

Seeing is believing: the direct and contingent influence of pictures in health promotion advertising.

Because pictures, compared with words, are more effective in triggering vivid imagery, their effects should increase in situations in which they play a crucial role in facilitating imagery. This study accordingly explored the relative effects of information presented in pictorial formats and verbal formats in health promotion advertising. Symptoms presented in pictorial formats increased perceptions of the severity of a disease, whereas prevention options presented in pictorial formats enhanced efficacy in preventing the disease.

Performance evaluation of knowledge management among hospital employees.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the cognition of knowledge management (KM) among hospital employees and the relationship between KM and the KM enabler activities (financial, customer, internal business processes, learning and growth) in a regional hospital in Taiwan.

Design/methodology/approach: Both qualitative and quantitative research were used in this study. The instrument was conducted using in-depth interviews of three policy-makers as participants.

News coverage of health-related issues and its impacts on perceptions: Taiwan as an example.

This article examines how health news gets framed and the influence of exposure to news framed differently. A content analysis of Taiwanese newspapers indicates that health news in general, and H1N1 flu news in particular, is more likely to use alarm rather than coping frames. According to an experiment, exposure to H1N1 flu news in an alarm frame evokes greater fear and increases perceived severity and vulnerability, though it does not help develop prevention and treatment efficacy.

The effects of retrieval ease on health issue judgments: implications for campaign strategies.

This paper examines the effects of retrieving information about a health ailment on judgments of the perceived severity of the disease and self-efficacy regarding prevention and treatment. The literature on metacognition suggests that recall tasks render two types of information accessible: the retrieved content, and the subjective experience of retrieving the content. Both types of information can influence judgments.

Enhancing the effectiveness of antismoking messages via self-congruent appeals.

A self-congruent effect model was applied to understand adolescents' responses to antismoking advertising that referred to the self or others. Experiment 1 showed that self-referring ads generated more negative smoking attitudes than other-referring ads among adolescents with independent self-construals, whereas other-referring ads generated more negative smoking attitudes than self-referring ads among adolescents with interdependent self-construals. A survey further showed that smokers rated themselves higher on a measure of independent self-construal than nonsmokers.

Psychological motives versus health concerns: predicting smoking attitudes and promoting antismoking attitudes.

This article describes findings from 2 studies of smoking attitudes and behavior among Taiwanese adolescents. In the first, a survey, the motivations to gain positive external rewards, enhance positive internal affect, and reduce negative internal affect were all found to predict positive attitudes toward smoking, the intention to smoke, and actual smoking behavior. Concern for short-term health consequences was negatively associated with these outcomes (although concern for long-term consequences was not).

Increasing mental health literacy via narrative advertising.

This research explored the effectiveness of narrative advertising and argument advertising in increasing mental illness (depression) literacy. Results showed that narrative advertising was more effective than argument advertising at engaging participants in experiential immersion, resulting in greater sympathy toward those suffering from depression. In addition, narrative advertising better involved participants in issue elaboration and increased willingness to seek professional help.

Ideal self-image congruency as a motivator for smoking: the moderating effects of personality traits.

A content analysis showed that cigarette advertising in Taiwan from June 2001 to May 2003 portrayed smokers as masculine, adventurous, pleasure-loving, and sociable. A survey of 1,490 high school students further indicated that smokers and nonsmokers differ in the congruency between their ideal self-images and the perceived smoker image on these 4 image dimensions. The self-smoker image congruency was greater for smokers than for nonsmokers and was positively associated with attitudes toward cigarette advertising Most important, this study demonstrated that participants' personality traits moderated self-smoker image congruency effects on smoking attitudes.

Changing smoking attitudes by strengthening weak antismoking beliefs - Taiwan as an example.

I first explored the strength of Taiwanese high school students' beliefs regarding five antismoking messages. Findings of a nationwide survey showed that the students held these beliefs in the following order of decreasing strength: second-hand smoke damages health, smoking has long-term health consequences, smoking has short-term health consequences, cigarette marketers are manipulative, and smokers are perceived negatively. Experiment one further showed that antismoking ads featuring weakly held beliefs are more effective than those featuring strongly held beliefs.

Personal values, advertising, and smoking motivation in Taiwanese adolescents.

This article explores the role that personal values plays in motivating Taiwanese adolescents to smoke. In a nationwide survey of high school students, smokers attached greater importance to hedonic gratification values and less importance to idealism values than did nonsmokers. Hedonic gratification values were associated with favorable attitudes toward smoking, while idealism values were associated with unfavorable attitudes toward smoking.