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. 2024 Feb 20:10:20552076241233138.
doi: 10.1177/20552076241233138. eCollection 2024 Jan-Dec.

Exploring how health-related advertising interference contributes to the development of cyberchondria: A stressor-strain-outcome approach

Xinmiao Zhang  1 , Han Zheng  2   3 , Yueliang Zeng  4 , Jiayi Zou  5 , Lin Zhao  6
Affiliations

Exploring how health-related advertising interference contributes to the development of cyberchondria: A stressor-strain-outcome approach

Xinmiao Zhang et al. Digit Health. .

Abstract

Objectives: Cyberchondria is increasingly recognized as the dark side of digital health, given the pervasive use of the internet as a main source of health information in people's daily lives. While previous studies have identified many factors contributing to cyberchondria, there is a dearth of research on the impact of health-related advertisements. Therefore, this study adopts the stressor-strain-outcome (SSO) model to investigate how health-related advertising interference is directly and indirectly related to cyberchondria.

Methods: To empirically validate the proposed research model, we conducted an online survey with 437 internet users with medical information seeking experience in China. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the survey data.

Results: Our findings revealed a positive, direct association between health-related advertising interference and cyberchondria. Meanwhile, advertising interference was positively related to both information overload and information irrelevance, with the former further predicting cyberchondria. Moreover, doctor-patient communication weakened the positive effect of information overload on cyberchondria.

Conclusions: The study not only theoretically contributes to the literature by theorizing the relationship between health-related advertising interference and cyberchondria but also practically underlines the pivotal role of effective doctor-patient communication in reducing the development of cyberchondria.

Keywords: Cyberchondria; advertising interference; doctor–patient communication; information irrelevance; information overload.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Results of model testing.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The interaction effect between information overload and doctor–patient communication.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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