Yidi Chen1, Jianhui Wu2, Jinjin Ma1, Huanya Zhu1, Wenju Li3, Yiqun Gan1. 1. School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China. 2. School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, People's Republic of China. 3. National Center of Gerontology, Beijing Hospital, Beijing, China.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Our study explored whether and how media usage can mediate the path from anxiety and fear to physician-patient trust. DESIGN: Study 1 was a population-based, longitudinal study using nationally representative data from 29 provinces in mainland China. The baseline sample (N = 3233) was obtained from February 1 to 9, 2020. Follow-up (N = 1380) took place during March 17 to 24, 2020. Study 2 was a machine learning-based sentiment analysis in which data were captured from Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website, among the most popular official, unofficial, and health-related media accounts. The screened blogs from November to December 2019 and February to March 2020 were scored by Google APIs for positivity and magnitude. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Physician-patient trust. RESULTS: Study 1 showed fear and anxiety affected changes in physician-patient trust through media usage, the indirect effect of which was 0.14 (0.03) and the 95% CI was [0.08, 0.19]. Study 2 indicated a more positive image of physicians after the outbreak compared to before [F (2, 3537) = 3.646, p = 0.026, partial η2=0.002]. CONCLUSION: The negative impact of anxiety and fear on physician-patient trust was mediated by media use, which can be explained by the more positive media image during the pandemic.
OBJECTIVE: Our study explored whether and how media usage can mediate the path from anxiety and fear to physician-patient trust. DESIGN: Study 1 was a population-based, longitudinal study using nationally representative data from 29 provinces in mainland China. The baseline sample (N = 3233) was obtained from February 1 to 9, 2020. Follow-up (N = 1380) took place during March 17 to 24, 2020. Study 2 was a machine learning-based sentiment analysis in which data were captured from Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website, among the most popular official, unofficial, and health-related media accounts. The screened blogs from November to December 2019 and February to March 2020 were scored by Google APIs for positivity and magnitude. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Physician-patient trust. RESULTS: Study 1 showed fear and anxiety affected changes in physician-patient trust through media usage, the indirect effect of which was 0.14 (0.03) and the 95% CI was [0.08, 0.19]. Study 2 indicated a more positive image of physicians after the outbreak compared to before [F (2, 3537) = 3.646, p = 0.026, partial η2=0.002]. CONCLUSION: The negative impact of anxiety and fear on physician-patient trust was mediated by media use, which can be explained by the more positive media image during the pandemic.
Entities:
Keywords:
anxiety; fear; machine learning-based sentiment analysis; physician–patient trust; public health emergency; social media