CULTIVATING HEALTH ANXIETY: DIGITAL MEDIA EXPOSURE AND DIVERGENT RISK PERCEPTIONS IN VECTOR-BORNE EPIDEMICS

Abstract

In the Global South there are well-funded mass media campaigns to increase awareness and compliance with vector-borne epidemics. But the power of today's media exposure sites to induce positive or stunted civic outcomes is still debated. The main purpose of this study is to find the impact of the different duration of exposure to media, gender, and chronological age on cognitive threat recognition and preventative behavioral compliance of anti-dengue and anti-polio campaigns in Punjab Pakistan. A cross-sectional quantitative survey of 200 (100 males and 100 females) was carried out in urban and rural localities of Punjab. Both linear OLS and quadratic OLS regression models and simple moderation models (Hayes PROCESS) were tested using direct and curvilinear interaction pathway analyses. The cultivation paradox is a clear curvilinear one that emerges from the analysis. The optimal cognitive knowledge translation into practice is significantly related to moderate level of daily media use (1-3 hours). Heavy exposure (exposure > 3 hours/day) on the other hand, results in psychological fatigue, etiological paralysis and informational avoidance, in favor of the proposed "Mean Epidemic Syndrome". In addition, a critical gender gap within the household was identified in which male respondents had a higher percentage of knowledge about the campaign (100% dengue knowledge compared to 90% for females), as well as compliance with the campaign (88% dengue preventive practice adoption compared to 82% for females). The younger cohorts (21-40) were more accepting of the campaign and more compliant than the older cohorts, and were more technologically integrated, less cognitively rigid. Developers of campaign strategies need to establish daily limits on the number of threat-laden media messages; build in local, face-to-face interpersonal health care pathways; and eliminate structural barriers within the domestic sphere that prevent gendered and generational health literacy gaps.