TY - JOUR
T1 - Facebooking for health
T2 - An examination into the solicitation and effects of health-related social support on social networking sites
AU - Oh, Hyun Jung
AU - Lauckner, Carolyn
AU - Boehmer, Jan
AU - Fewins-Bliss, Ryan
AU - Li, Kang
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - The current study investigates people's use of social networking sites for health purposes and its impact on their perception of social support and their health self-efficacy. A structural model was fitted to test hypothesized relationships between having a health concern, seeking online health information, seeking health-related social support on Facebook, perceived social support from Facebook friends, and health-related self-efficacy. The study also looks at the relative significance of social support dimensions including: emotional, informational, tangible, and esteem dimensions. An analysis of 291 respondents revealed a positive relationship between having health concerns and seeking health-related social support. Seeking support was significantly associated with all four social support dimensions. Among the four support dimensions, emotional support was the only significant predictor of health self-efficacy. Also, emotional support was the dimension that was most prevalent in Facebook contexts. Health information seeking was also positively associated with health self-efficacy but was not significantly related to having a health concern.
AB - The current study investigates people's use of social networking sites for health purposes and its impact on their perception of social support and their health self-efficacy. A structural model was fitted to test hypothesized relationships between having a health concern, seeking online health information, seeking health-related social support on Facebook, perceived social support from Facebook friends, and health-related self-efficacy. The study also looks at the relative significance of social support dimensions including: emotional, informational, tangible, and esteem dimensions. An analysis of 291 respondents revealed a positive relationship between having health concerns and seeking health-related social support. Seeking support was significantly associated with all four social support dimensions. Among the four support dimensions, emotional support was the only significant predictor of health self-efficacy. Also, emotional support was the dimension that was most prevalent in Facebook contexts. Health information seeking was also positively associated with health self-efficacy but was not significantly related to having a health concern.
KW - Facebook
KW - Health self-efficacy
KW - Health-related social support
KW - Online information seeking
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84877326655&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84877326655&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.chb.2013.04.017
DO - 10.1016/j.chb.2013.04.017
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84877326655
SN - 0747-5632
VL - 29
SP - 2072
EP - 2080
JO - Computers in Human Behavior
JF - Computers in Human Behavior
IS - 5
ER -
