WeChatting for Health: What Motivates Older Adult Engagement with Health Information.

ABSTRACT: Although WeChat has become increasingly popular among Chinese elderly people as a tool to engage with health information, little research has examined their motivations for health purposes and their engagement with health information on the site. By applying the two-stage Use and gratification (U&G) approach, we first conducted in-depth interviews (n = 20) to explore older adults' distinctive motives. Based on the 22 motives found in the qualitative research, we developed a questionnaire for an online survey (n = 690) to further investigate how these motives affect older adults' engagement with health information on WeChat. As the result, six motive typologies were identified: information needs, social support, surveillance, social interaction, self-agency building, and technological conve

SUBMITTER: Zhang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8234300 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature