Communication inequalities in the COVID-19 pandemic: socioeconomic differences and preventive behaviors in the United States and South Korea.

Background: Communication inequalities are important mechanisms linking socioeconomic backgrounds to health outcomes. Guided by the structural influence model of communication, this study examined the intermediate role of health communication in the relationship between education, income, and preventive behavioral intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and South Korea.

Methods: The data were collected through two online surveys conducted by two professional research firms in the US (April 1-3, 2020) and South Korea (April 9-16, 2020).

Addressing the Social Determinants of Health in South Korea: Moderating Role of mHealth Technologies.

Mobile health (mHealth) technologies may reduce or widen health inequalities. Despite the extensive literature in support of both of these contrasting views, little attention has been paid to the role of mHealth technologies with regard to social strata and health in the context of South Korea, a country with one of the highest usages of smartphones worldwide. This study examined the effects of social determinants on health self-efficacy and health status and explored how mHealth technologies moderate the impacts of social determinants on health outcomes.

The Exploration of How Social Media Cultivate College Student Smokers: Theorizing Valence of Communication, Impression Management, and Perceived Risks and Benefits of Smoking in the O-S-R-O-R Model.

The purpose of this study is to build a theoretical framework to account for how social media lead college students to smoke. Arguing critical concepts, such as valence of communication, impression management, perceived risks and benefits, this study develops the O 1 -S-R 1 -O 2 -R 2 model. For this, we test a separated model for smokers and nonsmokers.

A smartphone-based support group for alcoholism: Effects of giving and receiving emotional support on coping self-efficacy and risky drinking.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature and effects of exchanging emotional support via a smartphone-based support group for patients with alcohol dependence. Of the 349 patients who met the (4th ed.) criteria for alcohol dependence, 153 patients participated in the discussion group within the Addiction-Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System, a smartphone application aimed at reducing relapse.

How Risk Communication via Facebook and Twitter Shapes Behavioral Intentions: The Case of Fine Dust Pollution in South Korea.

Despite the importance of social network sites (SNSs) in addressing emerging public health risks, there is still a relative lack of studies examining the effects of risk communication via SNSs on risk perceptions and preventive behaviors. Based on message expression‒ and reception‒effects paradigms, this study aims to explore how expressing and receiving risk information shape preventive behavioral intentions via risk perceptions. Given the differential nature and functionality of SNSs, the present investigation also examines whether expressing and receiving risk information via two different types of SNSs-Facebook and Twitter-have different effects on risk perceptions and behavioral intentions.

Differential Effects of Content-Oriented Versus User-Oriented Social Media on Risk Perceptions and Behavioral Intentions.

Social media have become increasingly important in risk and crisis situations. However, little is known about which types of social media have greater influence on risk perceptions and behaviors. This study pursues two goals related to this question.

The impact of social media on risk perceptions during the MERS outbreak in South Korea.

Analyzing nationally representative online panel survey data during the MERS outbreak in South Korea, this study examined the role of social media exposure in shaping public's risk perceptions of MERS. The present study also investigated the moderating role of heuristic-systematic processing and self-efficacy in the relationship between social media exposure and risk perceptions. The findings of this study showed that social media exposure was positively related to forming risk perceptions.

Breast Cancer Survivors' Contribution to Psychosocial Adjustment of Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer Patients in a Computer-Mediated Social Support Group.

This study investigated the role of breast cancer survivors in a computer-mediated social support (CMSS) group for women with breast cancer. Applying a computer-aided content analytic method, the present study examined the differences in support provision between survivors and newly diagnosed patients. This study further investigated the impacts of survivor-provided social support on psychosocial adjustment of newly diagnosed patients.

How social media influence college students' smoking attitudes and intentions.

Building on the influence of presumed influence (IPI) model, this study examines how smoking- related messages on social media influence college students' smoking. We surveyed 366 college students from three U.S.

The effects of SNS communication: How expressing and receiving information predict MERS-preventive behavioral intentions in South Korea.

Individuals use social network sites (SNSs) as an effective tool for communicating relevant information with others during the outbreak of infectious diseases. However, little is known about the underlying mechanism through which communicative behaviors influence preventive behaviors. Thus, in the context of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in South Korea, this study investigated how two communicative behaviors (message expression and reception) in SNSs affected the communicators' intentions to engage in MERS-preventive behaviors.

The Effects of Expressing Religious Support Online for Breast Cancer Patients.

The growth of online support groups has led to an expression effects paradigm within the health communication literature. Although religious support expression is characterized as a typical subdimension of emotional support, we argue that in the context of a life-threatening illness, the inclusion of a religious component creates a unique communication process. Using data from an online group for women with breast cancer, we test a theoretical expression effects model.

The influence of celebrity exemplars on college students' smoking.

Objective: This study examined the effect of celebrity smoking exemplars in health news on college students' perceptions of smoking-related health risks and smoking intentions.

Participants And Methods: The data were collected using a Web-based survey of 219 undergraduate students at a large midwestern university in March 2011. Separate analyses of covariance were conducted.

Patient-clinician mobile communication: analyzing text messaging between adolescents with asthma and nurse case managers.

Background: With the increasing penetration of digital mobile devices among adolescents, mobile texting messaging is emerging as a new channel for patient-clinician communication for this population. In particular, it can promote active communication between healthcare clinicians and adolescents with asthma. However, little is known about the content of the messages exchanged in medical encounters via mobile text messaging.

The role of the family environment and computer-mediated social support on breast cancer patients' coping strategies.

Despite the importance of family environment and computer-mediated social support (CMSS) for women with breast cancer, little is known about the interplay of these sources of care and assistance on patients' coping strategies. To understand this relation, the authors examined the effect of family environment as a predictor of the use of CMSS groups as well as a moderator of the relation between group participation and forms of coping. Data were collected from 111 patients in CMSS groups in the Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System "Living with Breast Cancer" intervention.

The effects of expression: how providing emotional support online improves cancer patients' coping strategies.

Background: Emotional support has traditionally been conceived as something a breast cancer patient receives. However, this framework may obscure a more complex process, facilitated by the emerging social media environment, which includes the effects of composing and sending messages to others. Accordingly, this study explores the effects of expression and reception of emotional support messages in online groups and the importance of bonding as a mediator influencing the coping strategies of breast cancer patients.

Giving and Receiving Emotional Support Online: Communication Competence as a Moderator of Psychosocial Benefits for Women with Breast Cancer.

This study examines the moderating role of emotional communication competence in the relationship between computer-mediated social support (CMSS) group participation, specifically giving and receiving emotional support, and psychological health outcomes. Data were collected as part of randomized clinical trials for women diagnosed with breast cancer within the last 2 months. Expression and reception of emotional support was assessed by tracking and coding the 18,064 messages that 236 patients posted and read in CMSS groups.

It is out of my hands: how deferring control to God can decrease quality of life for breast cancer patients.

Objective: This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of how and why religion affects psychosocial health outcomes. We propose a theoretical model predicting that when women with breast cancer defer control to God they will experience fewer breast cancer related concerns. Deferring control to God, however, should also reduce the likelihood that they take a proactive coping approach, which will be exacerbated by lowered breast cancer concerns.

Predictors of the change in the expression of emotional support within an online breast cancer support group: a longitudinal study.

Objectives: To explore how the expression of emotional support in an online breast cancer support group changes over time, and what factors predict this pattern of change.

Methods: We conducted growth curve modeling with data collected from 192 participants in an online breast cancer support group within the Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System (CHESS) during a 24-week intervention period.

Results: Individual expression of emotional support tends to increase over time for the first 12 weeks of the intervention, but then decrease slightly with time after that.

Expression and reception of treatment information in breast cancer support groups: how health self-efficacy moderates effects on emotional well-being.

Objectives: To examine the effects of exchanging treatment information within computer-mediated breast cancer support groups on emotional well-being, and to explore whether this relationship is moderated by health self-efficacy.

Sample: 177 breast cancer patients using an electronic Health (eHealth) program with discussion group.

Measure: expression and reception of treatment information; emotional well-being scale (0, 4 months).