Beyond Health Information Exposure: Examining How Conflicting Social Media Health Content Influences Trust in Professional Healthcare Advice

Author

Makkena Aadarsh and Dr. Prasanna Kumar


Abstract

 While traditional mass media are still being used, social media has become a major channel of health information. Social media make it possible for us to get health information in the form of medical advice, treatments, tips on prevention, and personal experiences. Misinformation and the overabundance of health-related information on social media create barriers for the population to get trustworthy medical information. Social media users are increasingly encountering competing medication advice, vaccines, diets, treatments, and disease prevention methods, which cause confusion about which to follow. This paper studies the impact of conflicting health information on social media on the trust in medical advice. It also studies the mediating roles of perceived credibility, digital health literacy, previous healthcare experiences, and doctor-patient interactions. It takes a conceptual research approach, drawing information from secondary data collected from literature sources and making a proposal for a quantitative research approach. Existing research suggests that perceived health misinformation impacts trust in healthcare negatively, although the impact's strength varies with users' health literacy levels. The paper concludes that trustworthy medical communication, health literacy, and online social media behavior are key factors in fostering trust in medical advice.



Keywords

social media, health misinformation, conflicting health messages, trust in health care, health advice, digital health literacy, patient education.



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References


This section is shown below in APA Style. Here are the references below are listed in the APA Style. Journal information and DOI if available are also included.

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