Study On The Influence Mechanism Of Social Media Users’ Health Information Anxiety Under COVID-19 Epidemic

In 2019,the COVID-19 epidemic broke out all over the world with the implementation of the normalized measures of epidemic prevention and control in 2022,people’s way of life has been completely reconstructed by the COVID-19 epidemic.In the field of health communication,the epidemic has been accompanied by a proliferation of fake news and overloaded pseudoscience,and the disorder of communication caused by the "information epidemic" has posed a huge governance challenge for public information dissemination.When social media users use the Internet to obtain information on health care,disease prevention and epidemic policies,they are prone to health information anxiety caused by limited attention resources.This study explores the mechanisms of health information anxiety in the use of social media in the context of the new crown epidemic.Therefore,this paper obtained the basic situation of health information anxiety among social media users of different ages,regions,occupations and genders through questionnaire research,combined with risk perception theory and problem-solving scenario theory,designed a model of factors affecting social media users’ health information anxiety,obtained survey data through scales,conducted parameter estimation and hypothesis testing through structural equation modeling,and finally verified the model’s The rationality of the model was finally verified,and based on the data analysis,it was concluded that:(1)Changes in the information environment are closely related to the psychological state of the public.The experiences and perceptions provided by the Internet have improved the public’s health literacy,but they have also forced the public to constantly reflect on and pay attention to their own health conditions.There is a general anxiety among social media users,and the level of anxiety is high.(2)Trust in official media information is closely related to people’s risk perceptions.This study found that risk perceptions act as a mediator of information and users’ responses,and the poorer the quality of social media-related information,the lower the credibility of the medium,and the more risks people perceive,thus increasing tension and anxiety.(3)The degree to which the public attaches importance to health information significantly affects their ability to identify health information.The higher the degree of information focus,the higher the ability to identify health information and the higher the health information literacy.It follows that information-focused users are more likely to rely on health information,which leads to health information anxiety.(4)The differences in perceived health information anxiety among social media users with different demographic characteristics attributes are not significant,but the paths of action of factors affecting social media users’ health information anxiety are very clear;the information environment to which social media users are exposed is positively correlated with health information anxiety,the quality of information to which social media users are exposed is negatively correlated with health information anxiety,and social media users’ health information The frequency of exposure to health information is positively correlated with health information anxiety,the relevance of health information in social media is positively correlated with health information anxiety,and social media users’ problem perceptions are negatively correlated with health information anxiety.