No time to lie: Examining the identity of pro-vaccination and anti-vaccination supporters through user-generated content.

OBJECTIVE: This study delves into the social identity of pro-vaccination and anti-vaccination supporters, emphasizing an understanding of the values that shape these distinct identities. Furthermore, the research highlights that user-generated content pertaining to vaccines offers valuable insights into the underlying personal values of both pro-vaccination and anti-vaccination groups. METHOD: We constructed a textual dataset based on 142,596 tweets. This data was analyzed in three steps. First, the linguistic characteristics of the textual data, together with the underlying personal values of the text creators, were identified using LIWC software. Second, the identified personal values were used as an input for the moderation analysis, which examined the relationship between personal values and social identity for pro- and anti-vaccination groups. Finally, an automated, in-depth text analysis was conducted in Mathematica to understand the narratives created by both groups. RESULTS: The study findings indicate that both pro-vaccination and anti-vaccination supporters display characteristics of subcultures with distinct group identities. Consequently, based on the results, there is a need for more tailored public health communication strategies that address these two groups separately. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding how users create health-related content based on their personal values is crucial. Acknowledging and appreciating the diverse personal values and identities within different groups in the vaccination discourse can inform health communication efforts, aligning these efforts with the specific values of each group. This targeted communication is vital for effectively conveying relevant peer-reviewed health information amid the abundance of health-related user-generated content.

The Role of Health Consciousness, Patient-Physician Trust, and Perceived Physician's Emotional Appraisal on Medical Adherence.

Poor adherence to medical recommendations is a well-recognized catalyst for public health consequences worldwide. The literature highlights health consciousness as a likely antecedent to patient-physician trust, which in turn promotes medical adherence. Nevertheless, principles of patient-centered care suggest that patient perceptions of their doctor's appraisal of their emotions may influence the path between trust and medical adherence. Accordingly, this study tested the mediating role of patient-physician trust in the relation between health consciousness and medical adherence and assessed whether patient ratings of their doctor's appraisal of their own and their patients' emotions moderated the mediated relation. Data were collected via self-report questionnaires from two culturally and economically diverse countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina (N = 262) and the United States (N = 314). Participants were young, healthy adults who visited their primary care physician in the past year. The study employed confirmatory factor analysis, mediation, and moderated mediation analyses. The results indicate that health consciousness positively related to patient-physician trust, which was in turn related to higher medical adherence and which mediated 28% of the total effect of health consciousness. Nevertheless, among patients who rated their physicians to have low appraisal for their patients' emotions but high appraisal for their own emotions, the path from trust to adherence was not significant. These results highlight the importance of promoting health consciousness among young individuals, all while training practitioners to be attuned to their patients' emotions and circumstances above their own. However, additional findings indicate that the interrelation between doctors' emotional attributes and adherence is not necessarily one directional and warrants further investigation.

The Mediating Role of Health Consciousness in the Relation Between Emotional Intelligence and Health Behaviors.

The goals of this study were to identify groups of health-related behaviors among young adults (N = 314, Mage = 21.94, SD = 6.53), gauge the relation between emotional intelligence and health behaviors in this population, and assess health consciousness as mediator of said relation. Latent class analysis identified two mutually exclusive health behavior groups, which according to response patterns were labeled as Healthy and Unhealthy. The Healthy group (56%) was composed of individuals who had a healthy diet (i.e., low fat and high fiber), exercised regularly, and who frequently engaged in behaviors that prevent oral and skin-related diseases. In contrast, the Unhealthy group (44%) rarely engaged in these health-promoting behaviors. Using structural equation modeling we found a negative relation between emotional intelligence and unhealthy behaviors relative to health-promoting ones. Mediation analyses indicated that the mechanism explaining said relation was through increments in health consciousness, with large standardized indirect effects ranging between -0.52 and -0.78. As health behaviors during early adulthood are salient predictors of health outcomes in old age, the results have clear implications for the inclusion of emotional intelligence training in programs seeking to raise health awareness and cultivate health promoting behaviors in young adults, in so much as to seek to reduce the risk of chronic ailments later in life.