Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: May 9, 2020
Date Accepted: Jun 2, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Jun 3, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
COVID-19-Related Information Sources and Their Relationships with Confidence of People in Coping with COVID-19: A Facebook Survey Study in Taiwan
ABSTRACT
Background:
People obtain information on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from the Internet and other sources. Understanding the factors related to such information sources aids health professionals in educating individuals.
Objective:
This study used data collected from the Online Survey Study on COVID-19 in Taiwan to examine what major COVID-19 information sources are available and which sources are significantly related to the self-confidence of people in coping with COVID-19 in Taiwan.
Methods:
A total of 1904 participants (1270 non-health-care workers and 634 health care workers) were recruited from the Facebook advertisement. Their major sources of information about COVID-19, the relationships between the sources and demographic factors, and the relationships between the sources and the self-confidence in coping with COVID-19 were surveyed.
Results:
Most Taiwanese people relied on the Internet for COVID-19 information (80.6%). Many respondents also used a variety of sources of information on COVID-19, where such variety was associated with sex, age, whether one was a health care worker, and level of worry toward COVID-19. For health care workers, the use of formal lessons as an information source was significantly associated with better self-confidence in coping with COVID-19. The significant association between receiving information from more sources and greater self-confidence was found only in health care workers but not in non-health care workers.
Conclusions:
Medical professionals should consider subgroups of the population when establishing the various means to deliver information on COVID-19.
Citation
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