Effects of mobile information-seeking on the intention to obtain reproductive cancer screening among chinese women: testing an integrative model

Abstract

Because the cognitive perspective has often been used in health behavior research, the influence of information and communication technology has been neglected although it plays a significant role in healthcare in the increasingly mobile age. The aim of this study is to test an integrative model including technological and cognitive variables to demonstrate that perceived usefulness and ease of mobile media use, health consciousness, and risk perception predict reproductive cancer information-seeking through mobile media and the intention to obtain cancer screening. The analyses of data collected in a survey of 1,065 young and middle-aged women in Nanjing, China showed that the cognitive variables of health consciousness and risk perception directly predicted cancer screening. In addition, the cognitive variables and the technological variables (i.e., perceived usefulness and ease of mobile media use, respectively) indirectly predicted cancer screening through mobile information-seeking. The implications of these results are discussed.

Keywords:

• mobile media
• mobile technologies
• technology acceptance model
• health consciousness
• risk perception
• cancer information-seeking
• cancer screening
• Chinese women

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yuan Zhang

Yuan Zhang is a graduate student in the School of Journalism and Communication at Nanjing University. Her major is new media communication.

Nainan Wen

Nainan Wen is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Nanjing University in China. Her research interests are focused on the impact of new media on attitudinal and behavioral outcomes in the context of health, science, and environmental issues.

Naipeng Chao

Naipeng Chao is a professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Nanjing University. He is the Director of the Computational Communication Collaboratory and the Chief Editor of the China Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication Studies. His research interest is the influence of online communication and social networks. His current research is focused on the spread of the fake news online and online rumors using computational approaches.