JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, health experts used social media platforms to share information and advocate for policies. In doing so, many faced online abuse, which some reported took a toll on their mental health and well-being. Variation in the impacts of online abuse on mental health, well-being, and professional efficacy suggest that health communicators may differ in their coping strategies and ultimately their resilience to such behaviours.

Objective:

This study explores the impacts of online abuse on health communicators’ mental health and well-being as well as their emotion- and problem-focused coping strategies.

Methods:

We recruited health communicators (public health officials, medical practitioners, university-based researchers) in Canada who engaged in professional online communication during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-22). In phase one, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 health communicators. In phase two, online questionnaires were completed by 34 individuals before participating in workshops. Purposive recruitment resulted in significant inclusion of those who self-identified as visible minorities and women. Interview and workshop data were subjected to inductive and deductive coding techniques to generate themes. Descriptive statistics were calculated for select questionnaire questions.

Results:

94% of interviewees and 82.35% of questionnaire respondents reported experiencing online abuse during the study period (2020-22). Most health communicators mentioned the emotional and psychological toll, including symptoms of depression and anxiety. Racialized and women health communicators faced abuse that emphasized their ethnicity, gender identity, and physical appearance. Health communicators’ most common emotion-focused coping strategies were withdrawing from social media platforms, avoiding social media platforms altogether, and accepting online abuse as unavoidable. Common problem-focused coping strategies included blocking or unfriending hostile accounts, changing online behaviour, formal help-seeking, and peer intervention. Due to the impacts of online abuse on participants’ mental health and well-being, 41.18% of questionnaire respondents seriously contemplated quitting health communication, while 52.94% reduced or suspended their online presence. Our findings suggest that health communicators who employed problem-focused coping strategies were more likely to remain ‘active’ online, demonstrating significant professional resilience.

Conclusions:

Although health communicators in our study implemented various emotion- and problem-focused coping strategies, they still faced challenges in dealing with the impacts of online abuse. Our findings reveal the limitations of individual coping strategies, suggesting the need for effective formal organizational policies to support those who receive online abuse and to sanction those who perpetrate it. Organizational policies could improve long-term outcomes for health communicators’ mental health and well-being by mitigating online abuse and supporting its targets. Such policies would bolster professional resilience, ensuring that important health information can still reach publics and is not silenced by online abuse. More research is needed to determine whether gender, race, or other factors shape coping strategies and their effectiveness.