About

Bo Feng is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Communication at UC Davis. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from Purdue University. Her expertise lies in interpersonal, supportive, and intercultural communication, with a primary focus on supportive communication. Her scholarship investigates how people conceptualize, seek, conduct, and respond to various forms of support, such as comforting and advice, across different contexts, cultures, and genders. She examines the features of effective and less effective supportive behaviors and aims to develop theoretical frameworks for researching and practicing supportive communication. Professor Feng's research program centers on understanding the processes involved in supportive communication, including face-to-face interactions, technologically mediated environments like online communities, and professional settings such as physician-patient interactions. Her work has been funded by notable external sources, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She also contributes to multiple academic centers, including East Asian Studies, the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research, and the Center for Design in the Public Interest.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Medicine
• Virology
• Multimedia
• Internal medicine
• World Wide Web
• Environmental health
• Nursing

Selected publications

• Assessing the effectiveness of a narrative-based patient education video for promoting opioid tapering

  Patient Education and Counseling · 2020 · 37 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Medicine
  • Psychology
  DOI

• Internet Use, Risk Awareness, and Demographic Characteristics Associated With Engagement in Preventive Behaviors and Testing: Cross-Sectional Survey on COVID-19 in the United States

  Journal of Medical Internet Research · 2020 · 211 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Psychology
  • Environmental health

  BACKGROUND: During the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, engagement in preventive behaviors and getting tested for the virus play a crucial role in protecting people from contracting the new coronavirus. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine how internet use, risk awareness, and demographic characteristics are associated with engagement in preventative behaviors and testing during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk from April 10, 2020, to April 14, 2020. Participants' internet use (in terms of the extent of receiving information pertaining to COVID-19), risk awareness (whether any immediate family members, close friends or relatives, or people in local communities tested positive for COVID-19), demographics (sex, age, ethnicity, income, education level, marital status, and employment status), as well as their engagement in preventative behaviors and testing were assessed. RESULTS: Our data included 979 valid responses from the United States. Participants who received more COVID-19-related health information online reported more frequent effort to engage in all types of preventive behaviors: wearing a facemask in public (odds ratio [OR] 1.55, 95% CI 1.34-1.79, P<.001), washing hands (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.35-1.85, P<.001), covering nose and mouth when sneezing and coughing (OR 1.78, 95% CI 1.52-2.10, P<.001), keeping social distance with others (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.21-1.65, P<.001), staying home (OR 1.40, 95% CI 1.20-1.62, P<.001), avoiding using public transportation (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.32-1.88, P<.001), and cleaning frequently used surfaces (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.34-1.79, P<.001). Compared with participants who did not have positive cases in their social circles, those who had immediate family members (OR 1.48, 95% CI 8.28-26.44, P<.001) or close friends and relatives (OR 2.52, 95% CI 1.58-4.03, P<.001) who tested positive were more likely to get tested. Participants' sex, age, ethnicity, marital status, and employment status were also associated with preventive behaviors and testing. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings revealed that the extent of receiving COVID-19-related information online, risk awareness, and demographic characteristics including sex, ethnicity, age, marital status, and employment status are key factors associated with US residents' engagement in various preventive behaviors and testing for COVID-19.

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Qiang Li

  Nankai University

  17 shared

• Erina L. MacGeorge

  Pennsylvania State University

  15 shared

• Dong Guo

  Jilin University

  15 shared

• Wenjing Pan

  iRepertoire (United States)

  11 shared

• Wang Liao

  11 shared

• Qiang Fu

  8 shared

• Jiahao Zhang

  Shandong University of Science and Technology

  8 shared

• Cuihua Shen

  University of California, Davis

  7 shared

Awards & honors

• Graduate Program Advising and Mentoring Award, 2022
• Top Paper Award, Interpersonal Communication Division, Inter…
• Top Paper Award, Interpersonal Communication Division, Inter…
• Community Building Award, 2017
• Chancellor's Fellow, 2016-2021

Similar researchers at University of California, Davis

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