Liu T, Song X, Zhu Q. Exploring the relationship between older adults’ online health information seeking, negative emotions and prevention behaviors in the pandemic context: a two-wave longitudinal study[J]. Frontiers in Public Health, 2024, 12: 1377017.

Abstract

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults were facing moremental health issues that may cause complex impacts on pandemic prevention,

and turning to the internet for health information is a double-edged sword

for them. This study aimed to investigate the reciprocal relationship between

negative emotions and prevention behaviors in older adults, as well as the direct

and moderating effects of online health information seeking (OHIS) on negative

emotions and prevention behaviors.

Methods: Based on the common-sense model of self-regulation (CSM) and

a sample of more than 20,000 participants from the Survey of Health, Aging

and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), this study first used an autoregressive

cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) to analyze the longitudinal effect of negative

emotions on prevention behaviors. Second, the study used ordinary least

squares (OLS) regression to explore the influence of OHIS usage frequency

changes on negative emotions and prevention behaviors. Third, the study used

multigroup analysis to examine the moderating effect of OHIS usage frequency

changes on the CLPM.

Results: The findings indicate a significant longitudinal association where initial

negative emotions predicted later prevention behaviors (β  =  0.038, p  <  0.001),

and increased OHIS frequency was linked to positive changes in prevention

behavior (β  =  0.109, p  <  0.001). Multigroup analysis revealed that the connection between negative emotions or increased negative emotions and prevention

behaviors remained significant for those with no change or an increase in OHIS

frequency but not for those with a decrease.

Conclusion: This study suggested that negative emotions may drive older adults

to engage more in prevention behaviors and that OHIS can augment this effect.

These results underscore the importance of addressing mental health and

providing reliable online health information to support older adults in managing

infectious disease risks.

Keywords：online health information seeking, older adults, SHARE, COVID-19, negative emotion, longitudinal study

基金资助：国家社会科学基金重大项目“面向健康中国战略的智慧养老数据资源体系建设研究”（项目编号：22&ZD327）；国家自然科学基金面上项目“ 社交媒体环境下失真健康信息的传播机制与协同治理研究”(72174083)； 国家自然科学基金青年项目“在线健康信息替代搜寻对老年人健康素养的影响及作用机制研究”（项目编号：72204210）；