Impact of media portrayal of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and vaccination attitudes (NU22-D-132)
Basic information
Investigator: prof. MUDr. Jiří Horáček, Ph.D., FCMA
Main recipient: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Research period: 1/4/2022 - 31/12/2023
Total budget: 4,787,000 CZK
Supported by: Czech Health Research Council (AZV ČR)
Annotation
The aims of this project are (1) to clarify the role of media representations of COVID-19 pandemic (its quantified parameters) and the role of objective indicators of the severity of the epidemiological situation (daily incidence, hospitalizations, and mortality) in the impact of the pandemic on mental health (measured by self-assessment scales), (2) to test the aim 1 also on an objective behavioural indicator of mental health (prescriptions of psychotropic medications), (3) to determine the risk and protective factors of media behaviour for mental health and their dynamics during the course of the pandemic, (4) to elucidate the impact of emotional valence of news on mental health and specificity of news coverage of the pandemic in this respect compared to other topics, and (5) to determine which media behaviours contribute to vaccine hesitancy. The main objective is to answers all 5 questions as accessible and immediately applicable practical recommendations to remediate the imapct of COVID-19 on mental health and psychiatric morbidity.