Health information seeking and sharing behavior of young adults on social media in Pakistan

Social media such as Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Twitter have radically enhanced the public access to health information. Still, studies have unexplored the factors that contribute toward such behaviors especially in developing countries. Therefore, this study identifies the factors that contri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of librarianship and information science Vol. 55; no. 3; pp. 579 - 595
Main Authors Malik, Amara, Islam, Talat, Ahmad, Mahmood, Mahmood, Khalid
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.09.2023
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Access to information
Developing countries
Health education
Health literacy
Information seeking behavior
Information sharing
LDCs
Social networks
Telemedicine
Young adults
Pakistan
e-Health literacy
health belief
health information sharing
Pakistan
social media
health information seeking
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ISSN0961-0006
1741-6477
DOI10.1177/09610006221090228

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Summary:Social media such as Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Twitter have radically enhanced the public access to health information. Still, studies have unexplored the factors that contribute toward such behaviors especially in developing countries. Therefore, this study identifies the factors that contribute to the likelihood of young adults’ health information seeking and sharing on social media. Specifically, drawing upon health belief model (HBM), the study attempts to understand how health belief and e-Health literacy affects health information seeking and sharing on social media. The study collected data from 413 young adults through Google Forms on a random basis. The results generated applying structural equation modeling confirmed that HBM related factors such as perceived susceptibility, perceived severity and perceived benefits positively while perceived barriers negatively influence young adults’ health information seeking and sharing intentions on social media. Furthermore, e-Health literacy was positively associated with health information seeking and sharing intentions on social media. This study is amongst a first few studies in the context of developing world to investigate the young adults’ intentions of seeking and sharing health information on social media based on HBM.
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ISSN:0961-0006
1741-6477
DOI:10.1177/09610006221090228