Online information and support seeking during COVID-19 lockdown in Wuhan: implications for health promotion

The lockdown that was deployed in Wuhan, China to combat the COVID-19 pandemic curbed the infection but also created great information challenges for people in social isolation. This resulted in surge in online health information seeking (OHIS) behaviors of the patients and their families. While the Internet has been widely used by Chinese public to access and search health information, there is relatively little research in the context of pandemic outbreaks, especially at the onset of a strong lockdown while many people were panicking. From a total of 10 908 '#COVID-19 Patient Seeking Help' posts on Weibo in a period of 20 days when the lockdown policy was first initiated, we identified 1496 unique patients living in or with family in Wuhan, China. Using textual analysis, we explored OHIS behaviors at the onset of the pandemic. Many faced increased difficulties accessing offline healthcare services and such turned to social media for help and information. In particular, the findings highlight the following themes: 'OHIS for medical treatment', 'OHIS to manage self-quarantine', 'OHIS for tangible support' and 'OHIS to navigate information discrepancy'. Overall, our findings provide important insights into health information seeking behaviors and the role of social media during a pandemic. Our findings also highlight the importance of considering people's information need and challenges created due to the lockdown policies in the future pandemic communication and preparedness.