The mediating effect of media usage on the relationship between anxiety/fear and physician–patient trust during the COVID-19 pandemic
Yidi Chen, Jianhui Wu, Jinjin Ma, Huanya Zhu, Wenju Li, Yiqun Gan
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Our study explored whether and how media usage can mediate the path from anxiety and fear to physician-patient trust. DESIGN: = 1380) took place during March 17 to 24, 2020. Study 2 was a machine learning-based sentiment analysis in which data were captured from Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website, among the most popular official, unofficial, and health-related media accounts. The screened blogs from November to December 2019 and February to March 2020 were scored by Google APIs for positivity and magnitude. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Physician-patient trust. RESULTS: =0.002]. CONCLUSION: The negative impact of anxiety and fear on physician-patient trust was mediated by media use, which can be explained by the more positive media image during the pandemic.