Factors Associated With Influential Health-Promoting Messages on Social Media: Content Analysis of Sina Weibo

Rao, Qingmao; Zhang, Zuyue; Lv, Yalan; Zhao, Yong; Bai, Li; Hou, Xiaorong

doi:10.2196/20558

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…As of December 2018, Weibo had 462 million active users per month, which has increased by more than 70 million for 3 consecutive years, and had 200 million active users with 130 million words posted per day [ 44 ]. Chinese netizens regard this platform as a preferred outlet for expressing their demands and appeals [ 45 ]. More and more messages were posted, read, forwarded, and commented on than any other platform.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unfolding the Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance in China

Yin¹,

Wu²,

Xia³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

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Background China is at the forefront of global efforts to develop COVID-19 vaccines and has five fast-tracked candidates at the final-stage, large-scale human clinical trials testing phase. Vaccine-promoting policymaking for public engagement is a prerequisite for social mobilization. However, making an informed and judicious choice is a dilemma for the Chinese government in the vaccine promotion context. Objective In this study, public opinions in China were analyzed via dialogues on Chinese social media, based on which Chinese netizens’ views on COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination were investigated. We also aimed to develop strategies for promoting vaccination programs in China based on an in-depth understanding of the challenges in risk communication and social mobilization. Methods We proposed a novel behavioral dynamics model, SRS/I (susceptible-reading-susceptible/immune), to analyze opinion transmission paradigms on Chinese social media. Coupled with a meta-analysis and natural language processing techniques, the emotion polarity of individual opinions was examined in their given context. Results We collected more than 1.75 million Weibo messages about COVID-19 vaccines from January to October 2020. According to the public opinion reproduction ratio (R0), the dynamic propagation of those messages can be classified into three periods: the ferment period (R01=1.1360), the revolution period (R02=2.8278), and the transmission period (R03=3.0729). Topics on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in China include price and side effects. From September to October, Weibo users claimed that the vaccine was overpriced, making up 18.3% (n=899) of messages; 38.1% (n=81,909) of relevant topics on Weibo received likes. On the contrary, the number of messages that considered the vaccine to be reasonably priced was twice as high but received fewer likes, accounting for 25.0% (n=53,693). In addition, we obtained 441 (47.7%) positive and 295 (31.9%) negative Weibo messages about side effects. Interestingly, inactivated vaccines instigated more heated discussions than any other vaccine type. The discussions, forwards, comments, and likes associated with topics related to inactivated vaccines accounted for 53% (n=588), 42% (n=3072), 56% (n=3671), and 49% (n=17,940), respectively, of the total activity associated with the five types of vaccines in China. Conclusions Most Chinese netizens believe that the vaccine is less expensive than previously thought, while some claim they cannot afford it for their entire family. The findings demonstrate that Chinese individuals are inclined to be positive about side effects over time and are proud of China’s involvement with vaccine development. Nevertheless, they have a collective misunderstanding about inactivated vaccines, insisting that inactivated vaccines are safer than other vaccines. Reflecting on netizens’ collective responses, the unfolding determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance provide illuminating benchmarks for vaccine-promoting policies.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unfolding the Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance in China

Yin¹,

Wu²,

Xia³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

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“…In mainland China, there are many kinds of social media platforms. Tiktok, Bilibili, and Weibo have become increasingly popular and essential channels for health information dissemination for Chinese people, with user-friendly experiences on computers, tablets, and smart mobile phones ( 22 – 24 ). There are many health-related videos on these platforms, but the literature lacks a quantitative quality assessment of video content related to health information, including pediatric urological diseases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality of Internet Videos Related to Pediatric Urology in Mainland China: A Cross-Sectional Study

Bai

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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BackgroundPediatric urological diseases pose serious threats to children's physical and mental health. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in poor pediatric outcomes for cryptorchidism, hypospadias, and testicular torsion. Presently, many people tend to seek health information via social media platforms. This study aims to quantitatively assess the quality of videos as an information source for pediatric urology in mainland China.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, a search was performed on social media platforms (Tiktok, Bilibili, and Weibo) with the search terms “cryptorchidism”, “hypospadias”, and “testicular torsion”. The first 30 results with any search term listed by relevance were selected in each platform. Video features (duration, number of likes, comments, and shares) and video sources were collected. Each video included in the study was assessed using DISCERN, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Benchmark Criteria, and Hexagonal Radar Schema. A correlation analysis was performed considering video features, video source, DISCERN scores and JAMA scores.ResultsA total of 152 videos were included and analyzed. The majority of videos were from physicians (65.8%). According to the DISCERN classification, most videos were rated as “very poor” (48.0%) and “poor” (36.8%). The mean DISCERN and JAMA scores were 36.56 and 2.68, respectively. The duration of videos uploaded by physicians was the shortest (P < 0.001). The video source had no relevance to numbers of “likes”, “comments”, “shares”, DISCERN scores, and JAMA scores (all P-values > 0.05). Other than video duration (P < 0.001), there was no statistically significant difference between groups for any of the recorded or calculated video data (all P values > 0.05). Hexagonal Radar Charts showed the severe imbalance and deficiency of video information. In general, Tiktok videos with the shortest duration received the most numbers of “likes”, “comments”, and “shares”, whereas the overall quality of videos on Weibo was relatively high.ConclusionsDespite most of the videos on social media platforms being uploaded by medical authors, the overall quality was poor. The misleading, inaccurate and incomplete information may pose a health risk to the viewers, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Much effort needs to be undertaken to improve the quality of health-related videos regarding pediatric urology.

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“…Weibo is one of the representative social media platforms with most users in China, which has more than 500 million active users and more than 700 billion views [ 12 , 16 - 19 ]. It has become one of the primary social platforms for Chinese internet users to disseminate and acquire health information [ 20 ]. Up to June 2020, China had nearly 1000 million netizens, accounting for 67% of all Chinese citizens [ 21 , 22 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Public Health Events on COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy on Chinese Social Media: National Infoveillance Study

Zhang¹,

Feng²,

Xu³

et al. 2021

JMIR Public Health Surveill

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Background The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to every country worldwide. A call for global vaccination for COVID-19 plays a pivotal role in the fight against this virus. With the development of COVID-19 vaccines, public willingness to get vaccinated has become an important public health concern, considering the vaccine hesitancy observed worldwide. Social media is powerful in monitoring public attitudes and assess the dissemination, which would provide valuable information for policy makers. Objective This study aimed to investigate the responses of vaccine positivity on social media when major public events (major outbreaks) or major adverse events related to vaccination (COVID-19 or other similar vaccines) were reported. Methods A total of 340,783 vaccine-related posts were captured with the poster’s information on Weibo, the largest social platform in China. After data cleaning, 156,223 posts were included in the subsequent analysis. Using pandas and SnowNLP Python libraries, posts were classified into 2 categories, positive and negative. After model training and sentiment analysis, the proportion of positive posts was computed to measure the public positivity toward the COVID-19 vaccine. Results The positivity toward COVID-19 vaccines in China tends to fluctuate over time in the range of 45.7% to 77.0% and is intuitively correlated with public health events. In terms of gender, males were more positive (70.0% of the time) than females. In terms of region, when regional epidemics arose, not only the region with the epidemic and surrounding regions but also the whole country showed more positive attitudes to varying degrees. When the epidemic subsided temporarily, positivity decreased with varying degrees in each region. Conclusions In China, public positivity toward COVID-19 vaccines fluctuates over time and a regional epidemic or news on social media may cause significant variations in willingness to accept a vaccine. Furthermore, public attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination vary from gender and region. It is crucial for policy makers to adjust their policies through the use of positive incentives with prompt responses to pandemic-related news to promote vaccination acceptance.

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Factors Associated With Influential Health-Promoting Messages on Social Media: Content Analysis of Sina Weibo

Cited by 11 publications

References 58 publications

Unfolding the Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance in China

Unfolding the Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance in China

Quality of Internet Videos Related to Pediatric Urology in Mainland China: A Cross-Sectional Study

The Impact of Public Health Events on COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy on Chinese Social Media: National Infoveillance Study

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