America's Wellness Consumerism

The purpose of the study is to investigate historical “wellness consumerism” and why it has continued to exist. Wellness consumerism is distinct from concepts like health consumerism in that it is not strictly related to or reinforced by the U.S. health care system. The opposite has tended to occur because of rampant online health misinformation. Present research does not unite public health, online health misinformation, and socioeconomic influences (e.g. the wellness movement and wellness economy) under a common framework nor does it examine them with a historical perspective. In addition, present research does not examine the relationship between online health misinformation and wellness trends. Medical journals, the history of the wellness movement, and oral history interviews from witnesses of the wellness movement were used to explore wellness consumerism’s impact on people and public health. A study was conducted on a random sample of Amazon dietary supplements to investigate the relationship between health misinformation and affiliation with wellness trends. The results provide strong evidence for an association between the two, suggesting that producers of the wellness economy may be likely to spread health misinformation. Wellness consumerism resulted from co-optation of wellness by producers and has sustained longevity because it fills a gap in healthcare demand and worsens existing distrust in it. Wellness consumerism promotes a cycle of health information sharing that has negative implications for public health. This study highlights health problems uniquely associated with wellness consumerism and sheds light on other possible future socioeconomic challenges to public health while providing a basis for further consumer protections or health legislation that may be discussed in U.S. policy circles

The influence of public health information sharing on social media during the early COVID-19 outbreak

PurposeSocial media have become famous platform to search and share the COVID-19-related information. The objective of this research is to bridge the gap by proposing the effects of network cluster and transmitter activity on information sharing process.Design/methodology/approachData were collected by using Facebook application, which was available for 14 days (May 1–14) in 2020. These data were analyzed to determine the influence of the network cluster and transmitter activity.FindingsThe results showed that network cluster is positively related to transmitter activity on social media. In addition, transmitter activity partially mediated the effect of network cluster on the extent of information liked and shared. That is, transmitter activity can affect COVID-19-related information sharing on Facebook, and the activity effect is plausible and should become stronger as social network become denser.Originality/valueThis study has contributed to the knowledge of health information sharing in social media and has generated new opportunities for research into the role of network cluster. As social media is firmly entrenched in society, researches that improve the experience or quality for users is potentially impactful.

Understanding the Health Information Sharing Behavior of Social Media Users

Studies have focused on elucidating the sharing behavior of media users. However, few studies have specifically investigated users' health information sharing behavior in the social media context, especially WeChat. This study proposes a theoretical research model that integrates social capital and user gratification with the theory of planned behavior to explore health information sharing behavior of WeChat users. Based on online survey data collected from 616 WeChat users, correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were sequentially performed. It was found that both social capital and gratification factors play important roles in influencing WeChat users' health information sharing. Social interaction, acting both as social capital and gratification factor directly and indirectly generated positive effects on health information sharing intention. In conclusion, this study revealed the key determinants of health information sharing intention among WeChat users and examined the mediation effects to effectively understand users' health information sharing behavior.

Toward a More Complete Picture of Readmission-Decreasing Initiatives

Readmissions are common and costly. This study examines the effectiveness of two initiatives known to help reduce readmissions. Using data from the American Hospital Association, the Census Bureau, and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Hospital Compare database, we found that a higher quality of hospital care does not reduce, but in fact increases readmission rates. Although health information sharing decreases readmission rates, the effect is statistically significant only among the lowest-quality hospitals, not among mid- and high-quality hospitals. The results of our study have important policy implications for providers and hospital administrators with respect to efforts to reduce readmission rates.

The Impact of Health Information Sharing on Hospital Costs

Despite substantial progress in the adoption of health information technology (IT), researchers remain uncertain as to whether IT investments benefit hospitals. This study evaluates the effect of health information sharing on the cost of care, and whether the effect varies with context. Our results suggest that information sharing using health IT, specifically the extent (breadth) and level of detail (depth) of information sharing, helps to reduce the cost of care at the hospital level. The results also show that the effects of depth of information sharing on cost savings are salient in poor and less-concentrated regions, but not in wealthier, more-concentrated areas, whereas the the effects of breadth of information sharing on cost savings are equivalent across wealth and concentration. To realize the benefits of using health IT more effectively, policy makers’ strategies for encouraging active use of health IT should be informed by market characteristics.

Users’ health information sharing intention in strong ties social media: context of emerging markets

PurposeThis paper aims to theorize and examine how central cognition elaboration cue and peripheral cognition elaboration cue influence users’ health information sharing intention in Strong ties social media (STSM) in emerging markets.Design/methodology/approachThis paper innovatively proposes two concepts of health information emotion and health information sharing value based on the in-depth observation of users’ social health behavior. We integrate Elaboration Likelihood Model, Media Richness Theory, Trust Theory and Regulatory Focus Theory to develop hypotheses and research models and lay emphasis on the study of health information emotion’s moderating effect. This paper conducts an empirical study by selecting 372 health information users of WeChat, a typical STSM, to verify the research model by structural equation model.FindingsFor the central route, individual motivation and health information richness positively influence health information sharing value. For peripheral route, health information source trust and health information recipient trust both positively influence the health information sharing attitude. Health information sharing value and sharing attitude can positively affect users’ health information sharing intention. In addition, health information positive emotion has significant moderating effect, while health information negative emotion does not have.Originality/valueThis study contributes to a comprehensive perspective for understanding users’ health information sharing intention in STSM in emerging markets, an important but understudied topic. The results can also give implications for researchers to explore users’ behavioral intention from the perspective of process-oriented persuasion and health information emotion’s moderating effect.

Examining TikTok’s potential for community-engaged, digital knowledge mobilization with trans and nonbinary communities: A tutorial (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED Social media are increasingly leveraged by researchers to engage in public debates and to rapidly disseminate research results to healthcare providers, healthcare users, policymakers, educators, and the general public. This tutorial article contributes to growing literature on the use of social media for digital knowledge mobilization, drawing particular attention to TikTok and its unique potential for collaborative knowledge mobilization with underserved communities who experience barriers to healthcare and health inequities. Setting the TikTok platform apart from other social media are unique audio-visual video editing tools, together with an impactful algorithm, making possible knowledge dissemination and exchange with large global audiences. As an exemplar, we discuss digital knowledge mobilization with transgender and nonbinary populations, a population who experience barriers to healthcare and who are engaged in significant peer-to-peer health information sharing online. To demonstrate, analytics data from 13 selected TikTok videos on the topic of gender-affirming medicine (e.g., cross-sex hormones and surgeries) research are presented to illustrate how knowledge is disseminated within the trans community via TikTok. Considerations for researchers planning to use TikTok for digital knowledge mobilization and other related community engagement are also discussed. These include: the limitations of TikTok analytics data for measuring knowledge mobilization; trans population-specific concerns related to community safety on social media; barriers to internet access; the spread of disinformation; and commercialization and intellectual property issues. This article concludes that TikTok is an innovative social media platform presenting possibilities to achieve transformative, community-engaged knowledge mobilization between researchers, underserved healthcare users, and their healthcare providers—all of which are necessary to achieve better healthcare and population health outcomes.