The Mental Health Impact of Daily News Exposure During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

Kellerman, John; Hamilton, Jessica L.; Selby, Edward A.; Kleiman, Evan M.

doi:10.2196/36966

Cited by 26 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Meanwhile, those who trusted newspapers the most had decreased odds of depression and GAD. While consumption of distressing news during the COVID-19 pandemic was shown to have negative effects on mental health, 17 in our study the type of media people trusted was differentially associated with mental health symptoms. This is however not causative and purely an association, and therefore it is difficult to know whether increased news consumption led to increased mental health symptoms, or vice versa.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 45%

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The impact of source and consumption of news on mental distress among inflammatory bowel disease patients during the COVID-19 pandemic

Shaffer,

Dolovich,

El-Gabalawy

et al. 2024

Journal of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology

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Background We sought to understand the trends in media use, and how consumption and source affected mental health of persons with inflammatory bowel disease during the early parts of the pandemic. Dissemination of news during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was integral to educating the public but also could be harmful if constantly consumed, leading to worsening anxiety. Methods We performed a survey study in autumn 2020 during the second wave of COVID-19 in Manitoba. The survey included questions on consumption of COVID-19 news, along with validated measures of perceived stress, generalized anxiety, health anxiety, and depression. We used multivariable logistic regression analysis to assess trusted sources of news as a predictor of clinically significant mental health symptoms. Results Of the 2940 participants in the registry, 1384 (47.1%) persons responded. The most trusted sources of news were television (64.2%), internet (46.1%), newspaper (27.6%), friends/family (21.7%), social media (16.9%), and radio (16.6%). Those who trusted social media had higher odds of depression (aOR 1.52, 95%CI 1.04-2.22), and perceived stress (aOR 2.56, 95%CI 1.09-2.21). Persons who reported extreme difficulty limiting their time-consuming news about COVID-19 and who spent more than 1 h daily consuming information on COVID-19 both had increased odds of any clinically significant mental health symptoms. Conclusions It is unknown if consumption of COVID-19 news led to heightened mental health symptoms or if increasing anxieties and concerns led to consuming more news. Further research is needed to assess whether these elevated mental health symptoms led to worse disease outcomes.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 45%

“…A survey of college students between April and December 2020 revealed that greater exposure to news regarding COVID-19 was associated with increased worry about the pandemic, which in turn was associated with greater hopelessness and general worry. 17 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of source and consumption of news on mental distress among inflammatory bowel disease patients during the COVID-19 pandemic

Shaffer,

Dolovich,

El-Gabalawy

et al. 2024

Journal of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology

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“…This is consistent with previous studies suggesting a negative relationship between exposure to negative news and psychological health—that is, higher exposure to negative news could lower one's psychological health (Jain, 2021; Jones et al, 2021; Ma et al, 2021). Greater symptom severity of distress, anxiety, and depression was experienced by individuals who reported to have closely followed COVID‐19‐related news and consumed media across different platforms (Kellerman et al, 2022). During the pandemic, the mass media became not only an avenue for informative data but also a conduit for negative information and fake news (Cinelli et al, 2020; Jain, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevalence and predictors of psychological distress and common mental health concerns among Filipino university teachers amid the COVID‐19 pandemic

Mordeno

Luzano

Gallemit

et al. 2023

Psychology in the Schools

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The current pandemic has drastically changed the academic landscape, causing distressing experiences among students and teachers. While there are increasing studies demonstrating the psychological experiences of students during the pandemic, only a few have examined the mental health conditions of university teachers. The present study sought to address this gap by investigating the prevalence of psychological distress and common mental health disorders and their pandemic‐related risk factors among Filipino university teachers. A total of 1110 university teachers self‐reported their psychological distress, generalized anxiety, and major depression symptoms through an online assessment. Findings of the study revealed the overall prevalence of psychological distress at 55.6%, and anxiety and depression were 17.0% and 28.4%, respectively. Younger teachers (i.e., aged ≤31 years old) and those who have less than a year of teaching experience are more likely to reach the cut‐off scores for all outcomes. Further, teachers who have experienced pandemic‐related adversities are highly vulnerable to psychological distress, generalized anxiety, and depression. These results offer important implications for creating psychosocial interventions that will help teachers manage their distresses amid the pandemic situation.

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“…By comparing public agenda-setting with media agenda-setting, research has revealed that news media posts tended to focus on describing and analyzing the developments and progress of COVID-19, whereas posts by members of the public tended to express personal feelings and emotions [ 40 ]. Public sentiment has been reported to change in response to media reports about COVID-19, further indicating that the media agenda and the public agenda influence each other [ 41 ].…”

Section: Research Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact and management of internet-based public opinion dissemination during emergencies: A case study of Baidu News during the first wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Su,

Wang

2024

PLoS ONE

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Background and aims The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency has had a huge impact worldwide. We analyzed news headlines and keywords from the initial period of COVID-19, and explored the dissemination timeline of news related to the epidemic, and the impact of Internet-based media on the public using lifecycle theory and agenda-setting theory. We aimed to explore the impact of Baidu news headlines on public attention during the first wave of COVID-19, as well as the management mechanism of regulatory departments for social public opinion. Methods We searched Baidu News using the keywords “Novel Coronavirus” and “COVID-19” from 8 January to 21 February 2020, a total of 45 days, and used Python V3.6 to extract news samples during the first wave of the epidemic. We used text analysis software to structurally process captured news topics and content summaries, applied VOSviewer V6.19 and Ucinet V6.0 to examine key aspects of the data. Results We analyzed the impact of Baidu News headlines on social opinion during the first wave of COVID-19 in the budding, spread, and outbreak stage of the information lifecycle. From clustering visualization and social network analysis perspectives, we explored the characteristics of Baidu News during the initial stage of the COVID-19. The results indicated that agenda-setting coverage through online media helped to mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19. The findings revealed that news reporting generated a high level of public attention toward a specific emergency event. Conclusions The public requires accurate and objective information on the progress of COVID-19 through Baidu News headlines to inform their planning for the epidemic. Meanwhile, government can enhance the management mechanism of news dissemination, correct false and inaccurate news, and guide public opinion in a positive direction. In addition, timely official announcements on the progress of the COVID-19 outbreak and responses to matters of public concern can help calm tensions and maintain social stability.

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The Mental Health Impact of Daily News Exposure During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

Cited by 26 publications

References 54 publications

The impact of source and consumption of news on mental distress among inflammatory bowel disease patients during the COVID-19 pandemic

The impact of source and consumption of news on mental distress among inflammatory bowel disease patients during the COVID-19 pandemic

Prevalence and predictors of psychological distress and common mental health concerns among Filipino university teachers amid the COVID‐19 pandemic

The impact and management of internet-based public opinion dissemination during emergencies: A case study of Baidu News during the first wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

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