Research Article
Cheng Cheng*, Rita Espanha
Correspondence Address :
School of Sociology and Public Policy
University Institute of Lisbon
Portugal
Received on: May 26, 2021, Accepted on: June 08, 2021, Published on: June 14, 2021
Citation: Cheng Cheng, Rita Espanha (2021). Association of Sina-microblog Use with Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Towards COVID-19 Control in China
Copyright: © 2021 Cheng Cheng, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Aim: During the ongoing wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a recognized need for utilizing mobile social media to facilitate the dissemination of information and to promote public engagement in controlling COVID-19. This paper seeks to explore the relationships between the frequency of use of Sina-microblog, satisfaction with this use, COVID-19- related knowledge, health attitudes and the uptake of precautionary measures.
Subject and Methods: An online survey provided quantitative data from 296 participants. The approach of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was chosen, using SMART PLS 3.3.
Results: Satisfaction with Sina-microblog use has a positive effect on frequency of use (β=0.641, P<0.01), knowledge enhancement (β=0.487, P<0.01), health attitudes (β=0.366, P<0.01) and ultimate practice regarding the control of COVID-19 (β=0.322, P<0.01). This research confirms that knowledge enhancement can contribute to better health outcomes (β=0.672, P<0.01) and correct health attitude is positively associated with the uptake of COVID-19-related precautions (β=0.597, P<0.01).
Conclusion: In general, the findings presented in this paper add to our understanding of the necessity of improving satisfaction with social media use in the context of COVID-19.
Keywords: Sina-microblog use, KAPs model, Health communication, COVID-19 pandemic, Public health
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