The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is still raging. Similar to other RNA viruses, SARS-COV-2 is constantly mutating, which leads to the production of many infectious and lethal strains. For instance, the omicron variant detected in November 2021 became the leading strain of infection in many countries around the world and sparked an intense public debate on social media. The aim of this study is to explore the Chinese public’s perception of the omicron variants on social media. A total of 121,632 points of data relating to omicron on Sina Weibo from 0:00 27 November 2021 to 23:59:59 30 March 2022 (Beijing time) were collected and analyzed with LDA-based topic modeling and DLUT-Emotion ontology-based sentiment analysis. The results indicate that (1) the public discussion of omicron is based on five topics, including omicron’s impact on the economy, the omicron infection situation in other countries/regions, the omicron infection situation in China, omicron and vaccines and pandemic prevention and control for omicron. (2) From the 3 sentiment orientations of 121,632 valid Weibo posts, 49,402 posts were judged as positive emotions, accounting for approximately 40.6%; 47,667 were negative emotions, accounting for nearly 39.2%; and 24,563 were neutral emotions, accounting for about 20.2%. (3) The result of the analysis of the temporal trend of the seven categories of emotion attribution showed that fear kept decreasing, whereas good kept increasing. This study provides more insights into public perceptions of and attitudes toward emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. The results of this study may provide further recommendations for the Chinese government, public health authorities, and the media to promote knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 variant pandemic-resistant messages.

Obesity has become a common chronic disease in many countries around the world. People with obesity, as a minority, deserve more social attention. Currently, there are few studies on the health level of people with obesity from the perspective of social influencing factors. This study examines the effects of the frequency of physical exercise and frequency of use of different media types on the level of physical and mental health in people with obesity. In addition, we explore the mediating effect of physical exercise frequency on the relationship between online media use frequency and the mental health of people with obesity. The participants are 882 patients with obesity from the 2017 China General Social Survey (CGSS). The results show that: (1) Online media use was a possible positive predictor of physical health improvement among people with obesity. (2) Physical exercise was a possible positive predictor of mental health improvement among people with obesity. (3) Physical exercise played an entirely mediating role between online media use and mental health. The study is conducive to understanding the relationship and mediating mechanism between physical exercise, media use, and physical and mental health in people with obesity. The results of this study can provide suggestions for improving the health and well-being of people with obesity. Future research could explore more aspects of physical activity (e.g., the methods for physical exercise) and media use (e.g., media preference or compulsive use). More variables can be included in the study of influencing factors of the physical and mental health of people with obesity.

Background: Online video creation is becoming an option for many people with physical disabilities in China. However, few studies have considered how physically disabled individuals access social support through online video creation. Methods: For this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 online video creators with physical disabilities. The starting point of this study was video creation by people with physical disabilities, with a focus on the social interactions between creators, online video platforms, followers, viewers and sponsors, as well as the perceived social support in the process. Results: Thematic analysis was used to identify six social support themes: (i) meeting emotional needs; (ii) obtaining informational support; (iii) obtaining creative benefits; (iv) constructing identity; (v) reconstructing social relationships; and (vi) discovering self-worth. Four risk-related themes were identified: (i) online language violence; (ii) invasion of commercial capital; (iii) online video addiction; and (iv) fragile social support. Conclusions: The findings indicate that, although people with physical disabilities can obtain effective social support through creating online videos, it is accompanied by many risks. In addition, the social support gained through creating online videos differs from traditional online social support (e.g., changes in online support groups, emphasis on creative gain). Prospect: Future research should perform more detailed analyses of different types of social support and specific risks of creation, while taking into account individual differences and sociodemographic backgrounds.