[Purpose/significance]During COVID-19, the epidemic of false health information has become an information crisis, and middle-aged and elderly were the main victims of false health information of the epidemic. Studyingtheir coping behavior would help the development of accurate health information services.[Method/process]The dataof coping behavior related to false health information of epidemic are collected from 28 middle-aged and elderly usingsemi-structured interview. Then combining with PADM theory, heuristic-system model and coping behavior theory,and based on directed approach, to explore the internal mechanism of the middle-aged and elderly people’s coping behavior with false health information relate to public health emergencies and to construct a theoretical model.[Result/conclusion]In the context of public health emergencies, the attention and understanding of false health information bymiddle-aged and elderly is directly affected by the type of information, degree of loss, information source, informationchannel, and response, and is adjusted by the extent of the local epidemic; Based on the cognition of false health information of the epidemic, the awareness of harm, the perception of stakeholders, and the perception of protective behavior are formed. Furthermore, through heuristic or systematic information processing path to make behavioral decisions,choose to adopt problem-focused coping behaviors and emotion-focused coping behaviors. The results are helpful forthe accurate refutation of rumors and the implementation of health care strategy for the middle-aged and elderly in thecontext of public health emergencies.