Preferences in the use of social media for seeking and communicating health and lifestyle information

Introduction. The paper presents findings from a study investigating the health and lifestyle information behaviour of different groups of Icelanders. The paper focuses on the use of social media and its role in current information behaviour. Method. Quantitative methods were used. Two random samples were used in the study and the data were gathered using an internet and a telephone survey. Each sample consisted of 600 people from across the country, aged 18 years and older. Measurements included questions about the participants' sociodemographic background, their purposive information seeking, as well as seven questions about their use of social media. Analysis. The relationship between the socio-demographic variables and questions about the use of social media was analysed by chi-squared, and the scale social media. Cluster analysis was used to draw participants in four clusters: spasmodic, contemporary, conventional and enthusiastic. Evaluation of social media use was examined by analysis of variance. Binary logistic regression, controlling for background variables, was used to analyse the relationship between the cluster and the variable social media. Results. Participants in all groups were likely to use social media to read articles about health and lifestyle, and unlikely to post information or make comments about information from others. Women were more likely to employ social media than men and those who belong to the younger age groups were more likely to have used social media than those in the older age groups. The conventional and the spasmodic clusters seek information on the Internet and use social media infrequently, while the contemporary and the enthusiastic clusters do so more often. Conclusions. Participants in all groups preferred to use social media to read articles about health issues. This creates opportunities for health professionals to employ social media to strategically disseminate quality information and advocate healthy living. Social media is an important part of the information environment of the contemporary and the enthusiastic clusters while the spasmodic and conventional clusters use social media infrequently.