Role of Social Media in Fostering Effective Health Management

With the widespread use of social media in our mundane life, its applications have been used in various ways in the healthcare area. The more people find information and psychological supports from social media, the more healthcare service organizations provide health information via social media. Despite such trends, little empirical research has systematically examined meaningful linkages between the utilization of social media and individuals’ health outcomes. To address this research gap, this study investigates how social media influence individual users’ health outcomes by taking advantage of the SPO (Structure-Process-Outcome) framework, especially focusing on health management. The findings reveal that health information social media (HISM) have significant impacts on individuals’ psychological and behavioral health outcomes. The main findings have contributions to extant literature in theorizing the role of social media in fostering effective health management and have managerial implications for health service providers by suggesting the better utilization of socially well-accepted tools/resources (i.e., social media) for enhancing their healthcare service quality.