Citation

Xie T, Wang Y, Cheng Y. Int. J. Public Health 2023; 68: e1606404.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.3389/ijph.2023.1606404

PMID

37927389

PMCID

PMC10622586

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: People's mental health and digital usage have attracted widespread attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to investigate how social media overload influenced depressive symptoms under the COVID-19 infodemic and the role of risk perception and social media fatigue.

METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted on 644 college students during the COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai, and data analysis was conducted using the PROCESS4.0 tool.

RESULTS: The findings showed that in the COVID-19 information epidemic: 1) both information overload and communication overload were significantly and positively associated with depressive symptoms; 2) risk perception of COVID-19, and social media fatigue mediated this association separately; 3) and there was a chain mediating relationship between communication overload and depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSION: Social media overload was positively associated with depressive symptoms among college students under the COVID-19 infodemic by increasing risk perception and social media fatigue. The findings sparked further thinking on how the public should correctly use social media for risk communication during public health emergencies.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Universities; Cross-Sectional Studies; public health; Pandemics; risk perception; *Social Media; China/epidemiology; *COVID-19/epidemiology; Communicable Disease Control; Depression/epidemiology; depressive symptoms; Infodemic; SARS-CoV-2; social media fatigue; social media overload; Students/psychology