ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1562414
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Intersection of Psychology, Healthy Behaviors, and its OutcomesView all 105 articles
The Influence of Patient-centered Communication on Psychological Distress: The Chain Mediating Role of Health-related Self-Efficacy and Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors and The Moderating Role of Social Media Use
Provisionally accepted
- 1Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Guangzhou, China
- 2School of Journalism and Communication, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
- 3Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Macau, Macau, Shanghai Municipality, China
- 4Department of Communication / Institute of Collaborative Research / Center for Research in Greater Bay Area, University of Macau, Macao, Macao, SAR China
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Background: Psychological distress remains a pervasive issue, influenced by complex psychosocial and behavioral mechanisms. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research exploring how patient-centered communication influences psychological health through intermediary mechanisms, especially the sequential roles played by health-related self-efficacy and healthy lifestyles. Method: This study was conducted on de-identified pbulic data from the Health Information National Trends Survey 2022 (HINTS 6), with a sample size of 6,252. It first proposed and tested a chain mediation model linking patient-centered communication and psychological distress, mediated by health-related self-efficacy and healthy lifestyle behaviors. Based on the model, it explored the moderating role of social media use in this model. Result: This study found that patient-centered communication is negatively associated with psychological distress and health-related self-efficacy and healthy lifestyle behavior play a chain mediating role between them. Moreover, social media use enhances the positive impact of patientcentered communication on health-related self-efficacy. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the generalizability of patient-centered communication in alleviating psychological distress through the chain mediating pathway of health-related selfefficacy and healthy lifestyle behaviors. Notably, it reveals the moderating effect thresholds of social media use on this pathway. These findings provide both theoretical foundations and practical guidelines for: (1) optimizing doctor-patient communication strategies; (2) media literacy interventions under the WHO health literacy framework; and (3) improving psychological support in post-pandemic telemedicine.
Keywords: Patient-centered communication, psychological distress, health-related selfefficacy, Healthy lifestyle behaviors, social media use
Received: 17 Jan 2025; Accepted: 29 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 GONG, AO, CHEN and ZHAO. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xinshu ZHAO, Department of Communication / Institute of Collaborative Research / Center for Research in Greater Bay Area, University of Macau, Macao, Macao, SAR China
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