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Seeking Health Information and Support on Social Media
Riesenmy, Rhiannon
Riesenmy, Rhiannon
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Abstract
Social media has increasingly become a popular medium for chronic illness patients to obtain health information and support. An adapted theoretical model was proposed, utilizing prior literature on Social Cognitive Theory, social support, and health information seeking. This theoretical model was used to assess if online health information seeking could be utilized as an independent variable. Through a cross-sectional survey method design, the current study sought to understand the relationship between online health information seeking behavior, chronic disease self-efficacy, emotional support, and informational support. It was hypothesized that online health information seeking would be associated with higher reported levels of informational support, emotional support, and self-efficacy. Participants consisted of 173 individuals recruited from various social media platforms and Amazon MTurk. Results indicated that online health information seeking positively predicted informational and emotional support (p<.001). However, there was no significant relationship between health information seeking and self-efficacy, after controlling for informational and emotional support. The results fill a gap in the literature studying heath information seeking on social media among the chronic illness population, utilizing two type of social support in SCT, and establishing the use of health information seeking as an independent variable. This research has implications for healthcare professionals and patients for bringing awareness to the growing use of social media for health information and the type of support sought.
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Date
2020-08-31
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University of Kansas
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This item contains archived web content.
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Keywords
Mass communication, Journalism, Health education, chronic disease, chronic illness, health information, health information seeking, social media, social support