The Double-Edged Sword of Social Media: Social Media Use Provides Health Information Support and Contributes to Psychiatric Disorders During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Bu ZHONG, Zhibin Jiang, Wenjing Xie, Xuebing Qin

Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceedingConference proceedingpeer-review

Abstract

Background: As the world is battling COVID-19, it is important for health policymakers not to ignore a big risk: the toll on mental health in the general public. Based on a nationally representative sample (N = 2,185) from China, this study investigates mental health conditions in those who first experienced the COVID-19 outbreak but were not contracted with the virus.

Methods: A national sample was collected in China’s all 30 provinces for this study on the participants’ social media use, health information support, and psychiatric disorders, such as secondary traumatic stress and vicarious trauma.

Results: COVID-19 had taken a severe toll on people’s mental health, even for those without history of psychiatric disorders or not being contracted with coronavirus. Social media use did not cause mental health issues but it can mediate the levels of traumatic emotions. Meanwhile, people gained health information support in using social media, but the excessive use of social media was linked with elevated stress or psychiatric disorders. Geo-location and lockdown length are also found to contribute to traumatic disorders.

Conclusion: This research contributes to the literature by establishing the causal association between social media use and mental health conditions for the first time. This and other findings based on what Chinese people went through can help global citizens and health policy makers to mitigate psychiatric disorders in this and other public health crises, which should be a key component of general pandemic health care.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 11th Conference on Health IT & Analytics
EditorsRitu Agarwal , Guodong (Gordon) Gao, Kenyon Crowley, Jeffrey McCullough
Pages14
Number of pages1
Publication statusPublished - 8 Oct 2020
Event11th Annual Conference on Health IT and Analytics, CHITA 2020 - Virtual
Duration: 8 Oct 202010 Oct 2020
http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3850331 (Conference proceedings)

Conference

Conference11th Annual Conference on Health IT and Analytics, CHITA 2020
Period8/10/2010/10/20
Internet address

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