Facebooking for health: An examination into the solicitation and effects of health-related social support on social networking sites

• We looked at people’s use of Facebook to seek health-related social support.
• Overall, about 40% had sought health-related support from others on Facebook.
• People with health concerns had sought support from others on Facebook more often.
• Emotional support was perceived more often than other supports on Facebook.
• Emotional support was positively related to health self-efficacy.

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.