Journal of Medical Internet Research - International Scientific Journal for Medical Research, Information and Communication on the Internet

In the context of health campaigns, interpersonal communication can serve at least 2 functions: (a) to stimulate change through social interaction and (b) in a secondary diffusion process, to further disseminate message content. In a 3-wave prospective study of 1,079 smokers, the authors demonstrate that mass media messages (antismoking campaigns and news coverage relevant to smoking cessation) have an indirect effect on smoking cessation intention and behavior via interpersonal communication. Exposure to campaigns and news coverage prompts discussion about the campaigns, and, in turn, about smoking cessation. Interpersonal communication regarding smoking cessation then influences intention to quit smoking and attempts to quit smoking. The study finds evidence not only for the social interaction function of interpersonal communication, but also for the secondary diffusion function. A substantial number of smokers who are not directly exposed to the antismoking campaigns are nevertheless indirectly exposed via communication with people who have seen these campaigns. These results imply that encouragement of interpersonal communication can be an important campaign objective.

Journal of Medical Internet Research - International Scientific Journal for Medical Research, Information and Communication on the Internet #Preprint #PeerReviewMe: Warning: This is a unreviewed preprint. Readers are warned that the document has not been peer-reviewed by expert/patient reviewers or an academic editor, may contain misleading claims, and is likely to undergo changes before final publication, if accepted, or may have been rejected/withdrawn. Readers with interest and expertise are encouraged to sign up as peer-reviewer, if the paper is within an open peer-review period. Please cite this preprint only for review purposes or for grant applications and CVs (if you are the author). Background: Background: Alcohol is often consumed in social contexts. An emerging social context in which alcohol is becoming increasingly apparent is social media. Young people increasingly display alcohol-related posts (“alcoholposts”) on social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Objective: Objective: Considering the importance of social aspects for both alcohol consumption as well as social media use, the current study investigated (1) the social content of alcoholposts (i.e., the evaluative social context and presence of people) and (2) social processes (i.e., the posting of and reactions to posts) involved with alcoholposts on social networking sites. Methods: Methods: An extensive content analysis of Facebook and Instagram-profiles (N = 192) was conducted. Results: Results: It was shown that the alcoholposts of youth frequently depicted alcohol in a positive social context and displayed people holding drinks. In addition, alcoholposts were more often placed on participants’ timelines by others (i.e., by tagging) than they were posted by participants themselves. Furthermore, it was revealed that such social posts received more likes and comments than non-social posts (e.g., in which no people were visible). Conclusions: Conclusions: Thus, both in terms of content as well as processes, alcoholposts on social media are social in nature, and a part of young people’s everyday social lives. Interventions aiming to decrease alcoholposts should therefore focus on the broad social context of individuals in which posting about alcohol takes place.

To examine the effect of two types of self-identity on attempts to quit smoking: self-identity in terms of smoking and self-identity in terms of quitting. A prospective survey among an initial sample of 3,411 smokers. Smoking history variables and psychosocial variables from the theory of planned behavior are also measured. Intention to quit smoking and smoking cessation attempts 4 months later. Both smoking identity and quitting identity matter, but they appear to play different roles in explaining intention to quit and in predicting actual attempts to quit. Quitting identity is particularly important for intention to quit, whereas both quitting identity and smoking identity are important for actually trying to quit. Recent attempts to quit slightly attenuate the negative effect of smoking identity on attempts to quit. A broader interpretation of self-identity in terms of both current and aspired behavior offers a better understanding of when people might change health-relevant behavior.

Web interviewing is becoming increasingly popular worldwide, because it has several advantages over telephone interviewing such as lower costs and shorter fieldwork periods. However, there are also concerns about data quality of web surveys. The aim of this study was to compare the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Netherlands web and telephone samples on demographic and smoking related variables to assess differences in data quality.