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.