Journal of Education and Health Promotion

The role of virtual social networks in shaping people’s attitudes toward COVID‑19 in Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

. Maryam Jahanbakhsh
. Hossein Bagherian
. Nahid Tavakoli
. Asghar Ehteshami
. Mohammad Sattari
. Sakineh Saghaeian Nejad Isfahani
. Majid Jangi
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The widespread occurrence of COVID‑19 has caused people to seek information
from various sources such as virtual social networks, which can positively or negatively affect one’s
mental status. In this article, we present the role of virtual social networks in shaping people’s attitudes
toward COVID‑19 in Iran.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is an applied descriptive study, in which 1010 users of virtual
social networks were surveyed through an electronic questionnaire. Data were analyzed with SPSS,
Excel, and Rapid Miner software. The FP‑growth technique was used to investigate the concurrence
of choices in multiple‑choice questions, and the Mann–Whitney and the Kruskal–Wallis tests were
used to determine the correlation of the mean of each dimension with demographic data. Moreover,
the Wilcoxon signed‑rank, the Shapiro–Wilk, and the Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests were used.
RESULTS: Virtual social networks use increased significantly (40%) after the COVID‑19 outbreak.
According to users, the greatest psychological impact of virtual social networks was the induction
of anxiety (46.43%) and the most common use was to learn about COVID‑19 prevention and
treatment (69.3%). Based on the findings, there were no significant differences between the
“awareness,” “behavior intention,” and “attitude and trust” and the users’ marital status, age group,
educational degree, and gender.
CONCLUSION: Although social networks have enriched the public knowledge, they increased the
individuals’ anxiety mostly because of controversial news and disperse of misinformation which in turn
misled the users. The social networks play an important role in directing the behavioral inclinations.
Accordingly, it is recommended that the authorities in healthcare system establish authentic and
formal webpage in these social networks to manage controversial and voluminous information.

Keywords

Attitude
COVID‑19
virtual social network
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 11, Issue 3
March 2021
Pages 1-7

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