Media Exposure to COVID-19 Information, Risk Perception, Social and Geographical Proximity, and Self-Rated Anxiety in China

Abstract

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging infectious disease that spreads around the world. The lack of effective antiviral drugs and vaccines, along with the relatively high mortality rate and high contagiousness, has raised strong public concerns over COVID-19, especially for people living in the most severely affected areas. This study aimed to clarify the influencing factors for the anxiety level among the Chinese people during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on the media exposure to different COVID-19 information. Methods A total of 4991 respondents were randomly recruited from a national online panel from February 12 th , 2020 to February 14 th , 2020, a period when the number of COVID-19 cases surpassed 10,000 in a single day, with the total cases in China reaching up to 90000. The relationships between media exposure of COVID-19 information, social and geographical proximity to COVID-19, risk perceptions were assessed using hierarchical ordinary least squares regression analysis. Results The media exposure to COVID-19 information was differently associated with anxiety. Meanwhile, the anxiety level was found to be high in respondents who personally knew someone infected with COVID-19 or those who living in an area with reported cases. Respondents who perceived more risks also reported a higher level of anxiety. Conclusions This study highlights the role of media exposure in affecting individuals’ anxiety level during the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, it is recommended that government and health professionals are recommended to adopt effective risk communication strategies to protect citizens’ mental health during the pandemic. Keywords: self-rated anxiety, media exposure, social proximity, geographical proximity, risk perception

Chinese Women’s Concept of Childbirth Based on the Social Media Topic “What Does Childbirth Mean to a Woman”: Content and Thematic Analysis

“…This finding is consistent with existing Chinese literature analyzing childbirth willingness from online texts [25,26]. Previous studies showed that there are often more negative posts on fertility-related topics on Weibo [14], TikTok [27], WeChat [28], and other social media platforms in China. By analyzing the trend of women's attitudes toward childbirth, we found that the proportion of posts expressing a negative attitude fluctuates and rises over time.…”

“…This negativity can affect social media users through emotional contagion [34]. In line with previous findings on the relationship between social media and risk perceptions [28], this paper concludes that social media indeed increase women's childbirth risk perceptions. Taking a step further, this paper also provides specific examples for the expansion of women's risk perception.…”