Effect Of Information Framing On Health Behavior During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Public’s health behaviors are affected by many aspects,and the degree of people’s compliance with these health behaviors is of great significance for controlling this pandemic."Gain-loss framing" has become the most widely used type of health behavior information framing,which emphasizes the benefits brought by accepting certain health behaviors(gain-frame)and the losses caused by rejecting certain health behaviors(loss-frame).The information framing provides a new theoretical perspective for information behavior research,and also provides a new research idea for exploring the influence of information on behavior decision-making.This study investigates the public’s health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic,based on the Prevention and Control Programme of COVID-19(8th Edition),getting vaccinated,wearing masks and keeping social distance as examples,by analyzing the differences in cognition and decision-making caused by different framing information in the public’s decision-making process,it reveals the influence of framing effect of information on health behavior attitudes and intention.In addition,the background of social norms and the intermediary role of information credibility are considered in the information framing to find out that the framing effect of information in health behavior decisionmaking during the pandemic is influenced by the intervention of internal and external factors.Objective: The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of information framing effect on public health behavior attitude and intention,and to understand the internal and external factors that interfere with information frame perception(social norms and information credibility)on health behavior’s attitude and intention.Improve the research theory of information framing effect and health behavior,and optimize the intervention scheme of health behavior change.To provide scientific basis for health behavior intervention program during the COVID-19 pandemic,and thus provide reference for prevention and control of related diseases during and after the pandemic.Methods: A fusion model of the influence of social norms,information framing and information credibility on health behavior attitude and intention was constructed.Wearing masks,getting vaccinated and keeping social distance were selected as the research topics,and 445 valid samples were collected through online questionnaire survey.Ethical approval to conduct the study was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of College of Life Sciences,Central South University(Reference No.: 2021-1-23).The model testing and data analyzing were carried out by using Smart PLS 3.2.8 and SPSS 26.0 statistical software.Results:(1)Women’s compliance with the behavior of wearing masks and vaccinations is higher than men’s,but women’s compliance with the behavior of keeping social distance is lower than men’s;The compliance degree of health behaviors of urban residents is higher than that of rural residents.People with the highest income have the lowest compliance;The higher the education level,the lower the compliance with wearing masks,getting vaccinated and keeping social distance;There is a significant correlation between occupation and keeping social distance(P = 0.022 <0.05),employees in enterprises and institutions have the lowest compliance.There was a significant correlation between the age of wearing masks and keeping social distance(P = 0.019 < 0.05;p=0.005<0.05).(2)Social norms will affect people’s perception of the information framing and their attitude towards health behaviors under the frame of loss/gain,but the influence on intention depends on specific health behaviors.(3)The framing of gain/loss will all arouse people’s perception of information credibility.Information credibility has a positive impact on the intention to take health behaviors,and information credibility has a partial mediating effect.(4)Information framing has a significant impact on people’s attitude and intention to adopt health behaviors,and the persuasion effect of gain-frame is greater than that of loss-frame.(5)Among the components of health behaviors,the behavior of keeping social distance under the gain-frame has the greatest impact,and the behavior of getting vaccinated under the loss-frame has the greatest impact.Conclusion:(1)Men’s compliance should be strengthened in wearing masks and vaccinations;In terms of keeping social distance,we should strengthen the compliance of female groups,student groups and employees of enterprises and institutions;In addition,we should pay more attention to the strength of COVID-19 preventive measures for low-age groups,high-income groups and groups with high education level.(2)It is more effective to use loss information(emphasizing the disadvantages of not wearing masks/ getting vaccinated)when persuading people to wear masks and get vaccinated through social relations or public policies;When persuading people to keep social distance,it is more effective to use gain information(emphasizing the benefits of keeping social distance to people around them and the group).(3)Under the framing of gain/loss,the information credibility plays a part of intermediary role in health behavior,so attention should be paid to improving the accuracy,reliability and authenticity of information.(4)Information framing has a significant impact on people’s attitude and intention to take health behaviors,and the persuasion effect of gain framing is greater than that of loss framing.Perhaps it is more effective to add gain information to health information dissemination to encourage people to take preventive measures in COVID-19 pandemic.(5)When different expressions of information are used to persuade people to abide by the three healthy behaviors of wearing masks,getting vaccinated and keeping social distance,it is easiest to achieve prevention and control by emphasizing that people should keep social distance when they are under the intervention of positive information,and when people are surrounded by negative information,it is easiest to achieve prevention and control by emphasizing vaccination.