Health Information Acquisitions on Facebook

What is it about?

Using in-depth interviews with 32 young adults in the winter of 2012, this study explored how and why young people seek and scan health information on Facebook. The findings produce plentiful knowledge to help public health practitioners to take full advantage of Facebook to improve the effectiveness of health messages targeting young people.

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Why is it important?

This study constructs a framework using two key dimensions—Facebook use and health information desire on Facebook—to explain the four patterns of young adults’ health information acquisitions on Facebook: high seeking/high scanning, low seeking/high scanning, low seeking/low scanning, and high seeking/low scanning. For these patterns, the major motivations to acquire health information are knowledge fulfillment, entertainment, sociability, and instrumentality, respectively.