Journal Articles

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915

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    The Active Role of the Internet and Social Media Use in Nonpharmaceutical and Pharmaceutical Preventive Measures against COVID-19
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2022-01) Xie T; Tang M; Zhang RJ; Liu JH
    During the COVID-19 pandemic, does more internet and social media use lead to taking more- or less-effective preventive measures against the disease? A two-wave longitudinal survey with the general population in mainland China in mid-2020 found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, internet and social media use intensity promoted the adoption of nonpharmaceutical and pharmaceutical antipandemic measures. The first wave of data (n = 1014) showed that the more intensively people used the internet/social media, the more they perceived the threat of the pandemic, and took more nonpharmaceutical preventive measures (e.g., wearing masks, maintaining social distance, and washing hands) as a result. The second wave (n = 220) showed firstly the predicted relationship between internet/social media use intensity and the perceived threat of the pandemic and the adoption of nonpharmaceutical preventive measures by cross-lagged analysis; secondly, the predictive effect of internet/social media use on the adoption of pharmacological measures (i.e., willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19) and the mediating role of perceived pandemic threat were verified. The article concludes with a discussion of the role of the internet and social media use in the fight against COVID-19 in specific macrosocial contexts.
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    A Typology of Patients Based on Decision-Making Styles: Cross-Sectional Survey Study
    (JMIR Publications, 20/11/2019) FitzPatrick MA; Hess AC; Sudbury-Riley L; Schulz PJ
    Background: Although previous research shows broad differences in the impact of online health information on patient-practitioner decision making, specific research is required to identify and conceptualize patient decision-making styles related to the use of online health information and to differentiate segments according to the influence of online information on patient decision making and interactions with health professionals. Objective: This study aimed to investigate patients’ decision making in relation to online health information and interactions with health care practitioners. We also aimed to present a typology of patients based on significant differences in their decision making. Methods: We applied a large-scale cross-sectional research design using a survey. Data, generated using a questionnaire that was administered by companies specializing in providing online panels, were collected from random samples of baby boomers in the United Kingdom, the United States, and New Zealand. The total sample comprised 996 baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964, who had used the internet in the previous 6 months to search for and share health-related information. Data were analyzed using hierarchical cluster analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, as well as one-way analysis of variance, chi-square tests, and paired sample t tests. Results: Analyses identified 3 key decision-making styles that served as the base for 4 unique and stable segments of patients with distinctive decision-making styles: the Collaborators (229/996, 23.0%), the Autonomous-Collaborators (385/996, 38.7%), the Assertive-Collaborators (111/996, 11.1%), and the Passives (271/996, 27.2%). Profiles were further developed for these segments according to key differences in the online health information behavior, demographics, and interactional behaviors of patients. The typology demonstrates that collaborative decision making is dominant among patients either in its pure form or in combination with autonomous or assertive decision making. In other words, most patients (725/996, 72.8%) show significant collaboration in their decision making with health care professionals. However, at times, patients in the combination Autonomous-Collaborative segment prefer to exercise individual autonomy in their decision making, and those in the combination Assertive-Collaborative segment prefer to be assertive with health professionals. Finally, this study shows that a substantial number of patients adopt a distinctly passive decision-making style (271/996, 27.2%). Conclusions: The patient typology provides a framework for distinguishing practice-relevant and addressable segments with important implications for health care practitioners, including better-targeted communication programs for patients and more successful outcomes for health care services in the long term.
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    Politics and the internet: The New Zealand research
    (Sage Journals, 2009) Shaw R
    The new wave of information communication technologies is transforming politics around the world. A growing international literature notwithstanding, however, scholarship on the relationship between politics and the internet in New Zealand remains scant. The purposes of this article are to review the published academic literature regarding the impact of the internet on politics in New Zealand and to sketch a future research agenda which will address the gaps in that scholarship. The focus throughout is on research conducted on or about the New Zealand case ⿿ whether by New Zealand scholars or others ⿿ and on formal institutional politics.