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Abstract
Information avoidance is a prevalent communication phenomenon that is less well understood than information seeking. The present study adopts a social-normative perspective on information avoidance as social norms are powerful drivers of behaviors. We aim to separate various types of avoidance-related norms and examine how they relate to information avoidance intentions about the COVID-19 vaccination. Our online survey of a stratified sample of the German population (N = 1,508) revealed that there are personal and societal-level injunctive, descriptive and subjective norms. Except for societal-level descriptive norms, all norms were related to increased avoidance intention. Personal-level norms were revealed to be more important than societal-level norms in predicting avoidance behaviors.

Im Zentrum der Arbeit von Elena Link steht die Bedeutung des Vertrauens als bisher wenig beachtete soziale Dimension des Informationshandelns von Patienten. Mit der Zielsetzung, dessen Rolle zu identifizieren, integriert die Arbeit die theoretischen Perspektiven des Unsicherheitsmanagements und Vertrauens. Auf eine fundierte theoretische Modellierung folgen eine empirische Modellspezifikation und -prüfung mittels qualitativer Leitfadengespräche und einer repräsentativen Befragung. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen die Bedeutung des Vertrauens und zeigen, dass die Kommunikation mit Ärzten, die Informationssuche im Internet wie auch die Bedeutung des Vertrauens für beide von situativen Faktoren abhängig sind. Der Inhalt • Theoretische Grundlage des gesundheitsbezogenen Informationshandelns • Vertrauenseinstellungen gegenüber der Ärzteschaft und medialen Gesundheitsinformationen • Die Rolle von Vertrauenseinstellungen für das gesundheitsbezogene Informationshandeln • Einfluss der Vertrauenseinstellungen auf den Prozess des Informationshandelns • Ergebnisse der quantitativen Prüfung der Rolle der Vertrauenseinstellung Die Zielgruppen • Dozierende und Studierende aus den Bereichen Kommunikationswissenschaften, Gesundheitswissenschaften und Medizin • Akteure aus dem Bereich Gesundheitswesen, Ärzte und Ärztinnen Die Autorin Dr. Elena Link ist wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Institut für Journalistik und Kommunikationsforschung (IJK) der Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover

Abstract. Background: Health challenges can cause feelings of uncertainty that individuals intend to reduce, increase, or maintain. Those goals are connected to different information seeking and avoidance behaviors, building four uncertainty preferences. Aims: We aim to understand what drives people to seek or avoid information through a more differentiated look at the underlying uncertainty preferences and their determinants. Our starting point to explain different uncertainty preferences are stable, individual traits determining individuals' efficacy assessments. Method: We conducted a secondary analysis of an online survey among the German public in a sample with stratified demographic characteristics ( N = 3,000). The questionnaire measured different uncertainty preferences as well as coping efficacies and communication efficacy. Regression analyses determined the relevance of these predictors for the four uncertainty preferences. Results: The considered efficacy assessments explained a greater amount of variance in uncertainty preferences applying information seeking than information avoidance, but the influencing patterns are similar. Only health literacy as a communication efficacy was positively associated with both preferences applying information seeking and negatively associated with both preferences applying information avoidance. Limitations: The concept of uncertainty preferences should be critically assessed concerning its completeness. The low explanatory power of efficacy assessments for preferences underlying information avoidance strategies shows that further research is needed to identify relevant predictors. Conclusion: The findings suggest that efficacy assessments provide cognitive resources for goal-oriented uncertainty management, but a deeper understanding of specific underlying mechanisms of the different preferences requires further examination.

Abstract
Disease-related challenges are often associated with perceived uncertainties in individuals, triggering attempts to cope with the situation. Our study aims to understand patients' coping strategies regarding health information-seeking behaviors (HISBs). It is guided by the Uncertainty Management Theory, and seeks to grant insights into multi-channel HISB by describing how uses of interpersonal and media channels interact to cope with uncertainties, and how trust influences the process of multi-channel HISB. Patients diagnosed with osteoarthrosis (N = 34) participated in qualitative semi-structured interviews, from which five patterns of multi-channel HISB, ranging from a focus on the physician to a focus on the internet, were identified. These patterns are distinguished by underlying functions of trust – including trust serving as an additional coping strategy, and as an important influencing factor for perceiving information as meaningful – and by whether information needs remain and patients turn to multiple sources. These findings form the basis for further theory development considering the iterative nature of HISB and the role of trust.

If medical decision-making about complex treatment options (such as surgical procedures) is challenging for patients, family members can provide them with advice and health information. Previous research about family involvement in health communication has largely focused on cancer patients. Thus, it lacks an examination of family involvement in surgery decision-making in the context of non-life-threatening chronic diseases like arthrosis. In particular, we focus on the role of social support for family involvement in these situations. Against this background, we conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with arthrosis patients and their family members (n = 32 patients; n = 8 relatives). To better understand family involvement in surgery decision-making, three research questions were analyzed: (1) What are the perceived characteristics of the arthroplasty decisional process? (2) Which patterns of family involvement exist with regard to social support? (3) What general circumstances are relevant for family involvement? Our results demonstrate that social support plays an important role in the patterns of family decision-making. Instrumental, emotional, and informational support can indirectly enhance family involvement in decision-making. In addition, relatives are also directly involved in decision-making processes and may instigate the decision. The type of family involvement is influenced by characteristics of the decision-making situation. In addition to personal factors and the relationship with the physician, which is perceived as less supportive, the need for familial decisional support intensifies.

Internet searches for health-related purposes are common, with search engines like Google being the most popular starting point. However, results on the popularity of health information-seeking behaviors are based on self-report data, often criticized for suffering from incomplete recall, overreporting, and low reliability. Therefore, the current study builds on user-centric tracking of Internet use to reveal how individuals actually behave online. We conducted a secondary analysis of passively recorded Internet use logs to examine the prevalence of health-related search engine use, the types of health information searched for, and the sources visited after the searches. The analysis revealed two key findings. 1) We largely support earlier survey-based findings on the prevalence of online health information seeking with search engines and the relatively minor differences in information-seeking behaviors between socio-demographic groups. 2) We provide a more granular picture of the process of HISB using search engines by identifying different selection patterns depending on the scope of the searches.

Innovation research fighting for public attention and counteracting science-skeptical views raise the need for insights into why individuals are motivated to engage with scientific knowledge. Guided by the Planned Risk Information Seeking Model (PRISM), additionally considering mistrust in science and innovativeness, the study aimed to explain individuals' intention to seek information about medical innovations. Findings of an online survey among German residents ( N = 5,322) supported the utility of the extended PRISM to predict seeking intent. Most of the postulates of the PRISM were supported; mistrust served as a barrier to engagement with scientific knowledge, whereas innovativeness was of minor relevance.

AbstractDuring health crises like the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid‐19) pandemic, it is crucial that individuals are able and willing to adequately respond to information. Individuals who deliberately seek information have an enhanced capacity to act on it and are capable of informed assessments of risks and self‐protective behaviors. In contrast, overexposure to Covid‐19 news as well as non‐seeking can constitute information‐related inequalities and hamper individuals' coping with the health crisis. Having this global health communication challenge in mind, our research aims to understand what characterizes non‐, medium, and frequent seekers, considering sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors, health status, affective risk responses, efficacy assessments, trust in information sources, and satisfaction with information. This study is based on data of the second wave of the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) Germany. Among 2602 participants, analysis revealed that 23.3% of the respondents did not actively seek information about Covid‐19, while 34.3% of them intensively monitored information. Nonseekers, compared to medium and frequent seekers, were characterized by a lower socioeconomic status, lower affective risk responses, lower perceived information‐related self‐efficacy, and lower trust in information sources. These findings provide indications for strategic health approaches and can guide initiatives to address adequate use of health information.

ZusammenfassungIn der (fach-)öffentlichen Debatte der quantitativ forschenden deutschen Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft spielten forschungsethische Fragen bisher eine eher untergeordnete Rolle. Im Kontext von fachinternen Methodenentwicklungen und gesellschaftlichen Diskursen über gute wissenschaftliche Praxis rücken derzeit jedoch auch forschungsethische Fragen in den Blick des Fachs. Vor diesem Hintergrund werden Ergebnisse einer Online-Befragung von empirisch forschenden Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaftler*innen (N = 186) vorgestellt. Sie entstanden im Rahmen des vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung geförderten Verbundprojekts "Forschungsethik in der Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft". Die Ergebnisse ermöglichen Einsicht in den Stellenwert und den Umgang mit forschungsethischen Fragen im Kontext eigener Forschung, Lehre und Betreuung. Auch mögliche Einflussfaktoren werden untersucht. Insgesamt zeigte sich, dass die Befragten der Forschungsethik einen gewissen Stellenwert beimessen und weitgehend Konsens darüber besteht, dass ihre Relevanz in Zukunft noch zunehmen wird. Dennoch wird das Thema auch kontrovers gesehen.

The Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) is a well-established U.S.-based research program administered by the National Cancer Institute to track the public access to and use of health information. This paper introduces a German research initiative, part of the International Studies to Investigate Global Health Information Trends (INSIGHTS) research consortium. This adaptation of the HINTS is important for initiating analyses of global health communication practices and comparing health information seeking behaviors (HISB) across nations to pinpoint potentials and challenges of health information provision and contribute to a deeper understanding of socio-contextual determinants of HISB. First cross-country comparisons revealed that the share of residents seeking for health information is high in the U.S. (80%) and Germany (74%), but different primary sources are used. Whereas a clear majority of U.S. residents chose the Internet to gather health information (74.9%), Germans most often turn to health professionals (48.0%). Socio-structural and health(care)-related predictors were found to contribute to the explanation of HISB in both countries, whereas information-related predictors were only relevant in Germany. The results indicate the need to engage in patient-provider communication to initiate HISB and to improve the access to information for residents with lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Obwohl die aktive Auseinandersetzung mit Gesundheitsinformationen für den Erhalt der Gesundheit und die Bewältigung einer Erkrankung von Bedeutung ist, reagieren manche Menschen ablehnend auf entsprechende Informationen. So stellen Informationsvermeidung und Nicht-Nutzung alltägliche Kommunikationsphänomene dar, die allerdings bisher vergleichsweise wenig erforscht sind. Um diese Forschungslücke zu schließen, unterscheidet der vorliegende Beitrag zunächst verschiedene Typen des Umgangs mit Gesundheitsinformationen und charakterisiert diese anschließend anhand der Merkmale des Framework of Understanding Information Avoidance Decisions. Die Ergebnisse einer Online-Befragung einer stratifizierten Stichprobe der deutschen Bevölkerung zeigen die stärksten Unterschiede zwischen den Typen mit Blick auf die Persönlichkeitstendenz des Blunting, die wahrgenommene soziale Unterstützung, die Gesundheitskompetenz und das Vertrauen in Informationsquellen. Tendenziell unterscheiden diese Merkmale die Suchenden von den Vermeider*innen und Nicht-Nutzer*innen, während die Vermeider*innen und Nicht-Nutzer*innen nur unzureichend differenziert werden können. Die identifizierten Unterschiede mit Blick auf Bewältigungsressourcen, Fähigkeiten und Einstellungen dienen als erste Anhaltspunkte, welche Barrieren es in der strategischen Gesundheitskommunikation zu überwinden gilt, um die genannten Personengruppen anzusprechen.