Sharing Health Information from Facebook: A Comparative Study of Healthcare Professionals and the Public

• Main Authors: Hsin-Yuan Lin, 林信源
• Other Authors: Kuang-Ming Kuo
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/qjh5ps

碩士 === 義守大學 === 醫務管理學系 === 103 === Background and Objective: With the advancement of Internet, coupled with the emersion of Web 2.0 technology, social networking sites such as Facebook® began to gain popularity. Due to the increasing concerns of health issues among individuals, Facebook ®, focusing on the interactions among users, is certainly full with health information. Hence, one of the study aim is to explore factors that can motivate Facebook ® users to share health information. The second aim of this study is to find whether there is any different perceptions between the general public and healthcare professionals concerning these influencung factors. Research Materials and Methods: This study utilized Social Capital Theory as the theoretical underpinning to fulfill the study goals. Survey methodology was adopted to collect questionnaires from Facebook users® including the general public and healthcare professionals. The public was recruited from one community and the healthcare professionals were recruited from one regional hospital in Kaohsiung City. Results and Conclusion: Totally, 224 questionnaires were distrubuted and 204 valid questionnaires were returned, resulting in a valid response rate of 91%. The results of discriminant analysis showed that health information timeliness, relevance, usefulness, understandbility, shared vision and trust were the determinants that can influence Facebook® users to share health information. In addition, the results of independent samples t test revealed that the general public and health care professionals hold significantly different perceptions regarding health information completeness, relevance, usefulness and understandbility. Based on the findings, this study suggests that : 1) Medical institutions can create official Facebook® accounts to be in charge of sharing health information; 2) The Government should supervise the shared health information on the Facebook®; 3) the general public should pay more attention to the quality of health information on Facebook® before adoption; and 4) healthcare professionals should ensure the general public can better understand the shared health information with appropriate contents.