How Digital Media Use Affects Young Women’s Knowledge And Acceptability Of Human Papillomavirus（HPV） Vaccine

Related issues of health communication are becoming more and more important.In recent years,"health" has become one of the main theme of Chinese government’s important pubic policy,for example,the advance of "healthy China 2030",the medical revolution and the emphasis of environmental protection.Those policies and revolutions are the reflection of government’s efforts to promote a healthier society.For individuals,health management and health knowledge learning have become a new fashion after people’s material needs have been met.Therefore,not only for the government but also for individuals,issues from health communication are worth paying more attention and research in China.Currently,with the advance of clinical technology,more attentions needed to be paid to preventive medical.As an important issue of preventive medical,issues of vaccine has been a "frequently appeared guests" of health communication.This study focuses on the Papillomavirus（HPV）vaccine,which has been on the market of China only since 2016.The study proposes to supplement an academic perspective of media research and communication,as HPV vaccine is new in China and most current research are from the medical field.This study analyzes how online-media use affects young women’s knowledge and acceptability of human HPV vaccine.The correlation of media use and adoption of health behavior has been proved by many scholars.Health Communication believes that media use can affect people’s knowledge,intention and adoption of a certain health behavior.With the rapid development and prevalence of new media technology,online-media has become an significant method for Chinese people to access health information.Compared to traditional media,information of HPV vaccine are more available in cyberspace.HPV vaccine first came on the market of China in the year of 2016 and debates of its efficacy and safety were first happened in cyberspace.Therefore,online-media is of great importance to HPV vaccine’s diffusion in China.Current researches from Chinese scholars who focus on the field of public health more investigate people’s vaccination rate and acceptability from a macroscopic view,lacking attention on individual level.What’ more,some researches used different methods to measure "knowledge of HPV vaccine",causing contradictory results in similar studies.Health Communication holds that higher knowledge relates to higher acceptability of health behavior,but those studies proved that in some region of China,some groups of women with low level of HPV vaccine knowledge have high acceptability of HPV vaccine.Basing on theories and concepts from Cognitive Behavior Theory and Theory of Planned Behavior,this study analyzes how online-media use affects young women’s knowledge,intention and behavior of HPV vaccination.By a survey investigation,this study focuses on data from 542 questionnaires and adopts the method of multiple hierarchical regression analysis.The result shows that more frequency of online-media use,higher level of acceptability of HPV vaccine will be achieved,and the extension of online-media use only affects people’s intention of HPV vaccination.However,the extent of how users believe the HPV vaccine information in online-media and the frequency they share those information with others have no relation with the acceptability of HPV vaccine.