Study On The Influence Of Social Media On The Public Health Behavior

Health is related to everyone, every family, and the immediate interests of the whole society, that’s the significance of promoting health beliefs and healthy behavior. Social media, such as website, BBS, blog, etc., in the spread of a new way to provide us with the most abundant and the most efficient information and services, is considered to be the necessary communication tool in the medical and health fields. Social support provided by the social media can change the role of customers from passive consent to active and responsible partner in their health care pathway. The change in the role of patient is more significant than the change in technology in health care. However, compared to the rapidly developing new forms of social media, the domestic research of social media in health field is still in its infancy. So the study of social media influence on public health behavior has the important theoretical and practical significance in passing health information, developing health belief and promoting health management ability, etc.This thesis, comprehensively use of sociology, communication, health care and other perspectives, makes normative and empirical research on social media and health behavior. This paper expounds the problems existing in the medical and health applications of social media, and analyses its role in health communication process, and then put forward suggestions of social media health behavior promotion.There are six parts in this article:The first part is introduction. It briefly explains the research background and significance of this article, reviewing the related research at home and abroad, discussing the theoretical basis in detail, introducing research ideas and research methods of this paper.The second part of this paper introduces research subject--social media, health behavior. By the three-dimensional definition of health and the analyzing factors of health effects, concluding that "individual behavior and life style is one of the important factors that affect health". The end of this part describes some common health-related behaviors in real life.The third part is the analysis of the existing problems and the role positioning of social media in medical and health field. It firstly analyzes the existing problems including intermingled health information, deficiencies awareness of authoritative department and the public attention, and then locates the role of social media to be health communicator, public opinion direction and the doctor-patient relationship coordinator in health field. This section identifies the basic function of social media in the health care field.The fourth part is the empirical research on the impact of social media on public health behavior. Questionnaire survey of health behavior cognition was conducted among the main audience of social media. Through the statistical analysis of167effective questionnaires we concludes as the following:(1) lacking of awareness to healthy lifestyle, manifesting in ignorance of the social aspects health and the health risk behavior;(2) Social media is the main channel for health communication, it is also an important factor influencing health behavior;(3) Social media authority, health information sources and other factors affect the health promotion effect.The fifth chapter proposes some suggestions for social media health promotion for preliminary study, such as deepening the understanding of social media, improving the credibility of health information and strengthening the interaction effect of social media.The conclusion part summarizes the shortcomings of this study and discusses the future development of social media in medical and health field.