Zhang Xin, Tang Qing Qing, Cai Ying Ying
Department of Communication, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Front Public Health. 2024 Dec 5;12:1445778. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1445778. eCollection 2024.
The role of social media in providing fitness-related health information has been widely discussed; however, there is a notable lack of research on fitness-related health information behaviors among youth within the social media context. This study aims to address this gap by integrating Self-Determination Theory (SDT)-based internal factors and external factors (social media algorithms and source credibility).
A voluntary sample of 600 participants, aged 15 to 29, was recruited. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine the relationships between variables.
The analysis revealed that all three intrinsic needs-competence, autonomy, and relatedness-along with social media algorithms and source credibility, positively correlated with fitness-related health information use behaviors among youth. Additionally, social media algorithms moderated the relationship between the need for relatedness and fitness-related health information behavior.
These findings provide new insights into developing health communication strategies on social media, particularly targeted toward the youth demographic, enhancing our understanding of effective health information dissemination in digital environments.
社交媒体在提供与健身相关的健康信息方面的作用已得到广泛讨论；然而，在社交媒体背景下，针对青少年与健身相关的健康信息行为的研究明显不足。本研究旨在通过整合基于自我决定理论（SDT）的内部因素和外部因素（社交媒体算法和来源可信度）来填补这一空白。
招募了600名年龄在15至29岁之间的自愿参与者作为样本。使用偏最小二乘结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）对数据进行分析，以检验变量之间的关系。
分析表明，三种内在需求——能力、自主性和关联性——以及社交媒体算法和来源可信度，均与青少年的健身相关健康信息使用行为呈正相关。此外，社交媒体算法调节了关联性需求与健身相关健康信息行为之间的关系。
这些发现为制定社交媒体上的健康传播策略提供了新的见解，特别是针对青少年群体，增强了我们对数字环境中有效健康信息传播的理解。
