{"title":"Allied Health Care Professional Susceptibility to Health Misinformation on Social Media: A Systematic Review.","authors":"Brianna Miluk, M M Gosa","doi":"10.1080/10810730.2026.2701885","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2026.2701885","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Health misinformation on social media platforms is increasingly prevalent and spreads faster than truthful content. Belief in health misinformation, especially by allied health care professionals, carries detrimental risks to patient care. The purpose of this study was to examine the current state of evidence on pediatric allied health care professionals' susceptibility to health misinformation on social media. Four research databases were searched and PRISMA guidelines were followed to identify and screen articles for inclusion in this evidence-based systematic review. Quality appraisal using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool and the Center for Evidence-Based Medicine quality appraisal tool was conducted to determine final inclusion for review. Three articles met inclusion criteria for further analysis. Overall, susceptibility to health misinformation is multifaceted and there are many psychological, behavioral, and demographic factors that impact susceptibility to misinformation. Information source and trust, group identity, preexisting beliefs, and emotions surrounding the topic play a major role in susceptibility to misinformation. This study highlights factors that are known to influence susceptibility to health misinformation. Susceptibility to health misinformation can influence allied health professionals' adoption of beliefs and practices that do not otherwise align with research-based methods. However, no research to date has analyzed susceptibility of health misinformation specifically with allied health care professionals and additional research is warranted.</p>","PeriodicalId":16026,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Health Communication","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148578687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Carina Zelaya, Cynthia Baur, Anita Atwell Seate, David Liendo Uriona, Christina Getrich, Lahne Mattas-Curry, Brooke Fisher Liu
{"title":"Connecting Communication Competencies to Public Health Practice: Community Health Workers as Non-Traditional Risk Communicators.","authors":"Carina Zelaya, Cynthia Baur, Anita Atwell Seate, David Liendo Uriona, Christina Getrich, Lahne Mattas-Curry, Brooke Fisher Liu","doi":"10.1080/10810730.2026.2697429","DOIUrl":"10.1080/10810730.2026.2697429","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Public health crises depend on trusted community-based workers who interpret guidance, address local concerns, and help residents act under uncertainty. Existing crisis communication frameworks, including Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) and Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE), recognize the importance of community-centered approaches but offer limited guidance on what this work requires in practice. This study examined how community health workers (CHWs) serving Latine communities developed and applied communication competencies during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted two rounds of in-depth interviews with 41 CHWs in a large U.S. metropolitan area, capturing experiences across response and recovery contexts. Using thematic analysis with a hybrid deductive-inductive approach, we identified six communication competencies: (1) information seeking, sensemaking, and verification; (2) strategic communication and message design; (3) conversational and cultural interaction; (4) digital and media communication; (5) collaborative and team-based communication; and (6) system navigation and resource linkage. CHWs combined these competencies as coordinated practice rather than discrete skills. Findings extend CERC and RCCE by translating broad principles into teachable practices and provide a foundation for strengthening CHW training, supervision, and integration into emergency communication preparedness, particularly for linguistically and culturally diverse communities.</p>","PeriodicalId":16026,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Health Communication","volume":" ","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148578668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bridging Audience Segmentation and Message Intervention: AI-Generated HBM-Based Messages for Diabetes Prevention.","authors":"Qinxuan Yin, Xin Ma","doi":"10.1080/10810730.2026.2706638","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2026.2706638","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Health communication often faces a segmentation-intervention gap: psychographic segmentation identifies meaningful audience profiles, but these profiles are rarely translated into experimentally tested segment-specific messages. This study proposes and tests a segmentation-to-intervention pipeline that integrates Health Belief Model (HBM) diagnostics with generative artificial intelligence (GAI) for type 2 diabetes prevention. In Study 1 (<i>N</i> = 993), a two-step cluster analysis identified three HBM-based psychographic segments among at-risk adults. In Study 2 (<i>N</i> = 737), a randomized experiment tested AI-generated messages produced by Gemini 2.5 Pro to match each segment's HBM profile. Compared with a general message, AI-generated segment-specific messages increased preventive intentions at the aggregate level and within all three segments, suggesting broad persuasive benefits across psychologically distinct groups. Mediation analysis showed that AI personalization was associated with greater message elaboration, which in turn was linked to cognitive trust, affective trust, and preventive intention. Exploratory path results further suggested a direct association between elaboration and affective trust, extending existing models of human-AI trust. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of a scalable, theory-driven framework for precision health communication.</p>","PeriodicalId":16026,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Health Communication","volume":" ","pages":"1-15"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148578654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Merrybelle Guo, Elizabeth L Petrun Sayers, Lindsay Pitzer, Morgane Bennett
{"title":"From Linear TV to Curated Media: Challenges for Youth Public Education Media Campaigns and How \"The Real Cost\" is Adapting.","authors":"Merrybelle Guo, Elizabeth L Petrun Sayers, Lindsay Pitzer, Morgane Bennett","doi":"10.1080/10810730.2026.2698092","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2026.2698092","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>\"The Real Cost\" Youth Cigarette Prevention Campaign launched in 2014 when broadcast television (TV) was the main media channel. However, over the last two decades, the media landscape has changed dramatically, and now digital media is the primary way teens consume media. As it is critical that \"The Real Cost\" appear in places where teens spend their time, the campaign adapted its media and implementation strategies to continue effectively reaching its intended audience. Additionally, the campaign is exploring new measurement methodologies to understand the full impact of digital media campaigns. Although \"The Real Cost\" has shown success preventing teens from initiating tobacco use with cigarettes and e-cigarettes, the evolving digital media landscape poses challenges for public education media campaigns trying to reach teen audiences who can now curate their own personal content streams to view whatever they want, whenever and wherever they want to watch. This commentary discusses these key challenges, including evolving data privacy policies and practice, existing data gaps, and practical implementation and measurement considerations, as well as a description of solutions that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Tobacco Products are pursuing to address these challenges.</p>","PeriodicalId":16026,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Health Communication","volume":" ","pages":"1-7"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148562019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When Provider Contact Does Not Become PrEP Care.","authors":"Jeong Kyu Lee, Hyemin Lee","doi":"10.1080/10810730.2026.2707325","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2026.2707325","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake among sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations remains unequal across intersecting lines of race, gender identity, and socioeconomic position, even when awareness and prior provider discussion are present. This conceptual article treats these disparities as communication inequality visible at the clinical encounter, where provider contact can occur without converting into actionable care. Drawing on Lin's network theory of social capital, it recasts provider contact as a mobilization event whose value depends on its return, and locates the disparity in a return deficit, in which formally similar resources yield unequal outcomes across groups. Intersectional discrimination shapes this conversion through patient-side disclosure costs and provider-side recognition failures, in which PrEP candidacy is not registered despite contact. The framework shifts the central question from whether provider discussion occurs to what the encounter produces, redirecting analysis and intervention toward these conversion endpoints.</p>","PeriodicalId":16026,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Health Communication","volume":" ","pages":"1-4"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148549569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Paul J Wright, Debby Herbenick, Robert S Tokunaga, Emily F Rothman
{"title":"Pornography Exposure and Coitus Interruptus in a Campus-Representative Sample of Collegiate Men.","authors":"Paul J Wright, Debby Herbenick, Robert S Tokunaga, Emily F Rothman","doi":"10.1080/10810730.2026.2704965","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2026.2704965","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Coitus interruptus is an attempt at contraception wherein penile thrusts desist on the cusp of ejaculation, the penis is hastily withdrawn from the vagina, and semen is deposited externally. Pornography is extremely popular and multiple content analyses suggest that external ejaculation is the norm in pornographic depictions. Using campus-representative data collected from undergraduate and graduate students 18 and older at a large public U.S. university, the present study had three primary objectives: to provide the first estimate of the direction and magnitude of the association between pornography exposure frequency and coitus interruptus among men; to investigate whether the pornography exposure-coitus interruptus association is moderated by age, race, relationship status, binge drinking, or impulsivity; and to explore whether confounding and prediction models supported age, race, relationship status, binge drinking, and impulsivity as confounds or initiating predictors of the pornography exposure-coitus interruptus association. For every one-unit increase in pornography exposure frequency, the odds of coitus interruptus increased by 18%. This association was not moderated or confounded by age, race, relationship status, binge drinking, or impulsivity. Mediation models did suggest the importance of age, relationship status, and impulsivity as initiating predictors, however. Intervention and theoretical implications are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":16026,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Health Communication","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148497700","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does Cumulative Risk Fit into Single Risk Frameworks?: Examining the Planned Risk Information Seeking Model (PRISM) for Cumulative Environmental Health Risks.","authors":"Zoey Rosen, Elizabeth Meister, Andrew Fox","doi":"10.1080/10810730.2026.2703180","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2026.2703180","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Models like the Planned Risk Information Seeking Model (PRISM) bring together empirically supported paths from across domains to predict general health risk information seeking and have been validated in disease-specific contexts. Environmental health risks are one area that have not been tested in this model nor has cumulative risk, which are risks that have multiple, compounding stressors and impacts. Measuring model fit for cumulative risks through a single risk framework could inform how a general risk framework may fit for complex, interacting hazards. Through a representative survey of US adults (<i>n</i> = 2,531), we tested whether PRISM fit for six single and cumulative environmental health risk experimental conditions. There was an adequate model fit for each condition. However, there was no complete support across each hypothesized path. Future additions to PRISM are discussed for a more robust cumulative risk information seeking model in the environmental health risk domain.</p>","PeriodicalId":16026,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Health Communication","volume":" ","pages":"1-12"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148470872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On Residues, Echoes, Digital Afterlives, and the Slow Haunting of Health Information.","authors":"Lance Peng","doi":"10.1080/10810730.2026.2699885","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2026.2699885","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Health communication scholarship has developed models that emphasize circulation, interpretation, mediation, and context, including ecological approaches, diffusion and network theories, and research on audience reception. This piece argues health information moves beyond delivery and mutates in circulation. It develops three concepts: residues (persistent fragments detached from original context), echoes (repeated and transformed circulation across networks), and digital afterlives (platform-mediated continuation beyond authorial intent). It further introduces slow haunting to describe the temporal and affective accumulation of these informational traces. The article proposes an ecological view of health communication centered on persistence, simultaneity, and overlapping circulation patterns, where different versions of health information coexist.</p>","PeriodicalId":16026,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Health Communication","volume":" ","pages":"1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148396809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stress Buffering Through Online Social Support Under Offline Constraints.","authors":"Juwon Hwang","doi":"10.1080/10810730.2026.2699882","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2026.2699882","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Stress-buffering theory explains how perceived social support mitigates the negative effects of stress but offers limited guidance on when this buffering function varies across social contexts. Integrating stress-buffering and social compensation perspectives, this study examines online social support as a context-dependent form of support whose buffering role depends on constraints on face-to-face supportive communication. Two constraints are examined: chronic health conditions, which limit individuals' capacity to engage in in-person supportive interaction, and limited offline support availability, which restricts access to reliable face-to-face support. Using a U.S. survey (<i>N</i> = 2,650), analyses show that perceived online social support moderates the association between stress and quality of life, such that higher perceived online support is associated with a weaker negative association between stress and quality of life. Importantly, this stress-buffering association was stronger among individuals managing multiple chronic health conditions. A directionally consistent but non-confirmatory pattern was observed among individuals reporting lower offline support availability.</p>","PeriodicalId":16026,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Health Communication","volume":" ","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148390968","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yavuz Selim Balcioğlu, Özlem Karatana Çaliş, Erkut Altindağ
{"title":"Popular Attitudes Toward Vaccination During the Initial COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout (December 2020-May 2021): A Social Media Analysis.","authors":"Yavuz Selim Balcioğlu, Özlem Karatana Çaliş, Erkut Altindağ","doi":"10.1080/10810730.2026.2699886","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2026.2699886","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The COVID-19 pandemic triggered global vaccination campaigns while simultaneously fueling misinformation and vaccine hesitancy. This study analyzed 77,171 English-language tweets related to vaccination collected between December 2020 and May 2021 to examine how attitudes toward vaccination evolved during this critical period. Using a mixed-methods approach combining sentiment analysis, thematic classification, and demographic analysis, the study identified trends that may influence vaccination acceptance beyond COVID-19. Results showed a decline in positive sentiment (18.3% to 10.9%) and an increase in negative sentiment (9.1% to 14.6%), with a critical inflection point in February 2021. Trust in institutions was the most frequently discussed theme, but its initially positive sentiment decreased substantially by May 2021. Negative sentiment toward childhood vaccination rose sharply from 6.7% to 43.3% by April 2021. Users with larger follower counts contributed more negative content, amplifying skepticism. Eight misinformation categories were identified, including claims about DNA alteration, government control, and 5 G connectivity. Interpreted through the Health Belief Model, Social Amplification of Risk Framework, and Institutional Trust Theory, the findings suggest that vaccine distrust may extend to routine immunizations and highlight the need for targeted communication strategies to rebuild public trust.</p>","PeriodicalId":16026,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Health Communication","volume":" ","pages":"1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148390950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}