Prevalence and Predictors of Posting Health-Related Content Among US Facebook Users: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study

Abstract

Health-related content is prevalent on Facebook, but we know little about how often the typical user posts about health, the nature of such posts, or the characteristics of users who do so. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 2508 adult US Facebook users to assess the frequency and predictors of posting about a health condition, health behavior, and health information on Facebook. The findings revealed that 68.7% of participants posted at least one type of health-related content on Facebook in the past year, and 41.6% posted all three types of health-related content. Approximately 47% posted about a health condition, 56.7% posted about health behavior, and 62.7% posted health information in the past year. Male gender, advanced education, greater Facebook engagement, having a greater number of Facebook friends, and having a chronic disease were associated with more frequent posting of all types of health-related posts (all p-values ≤ 0.05). Older age and longer duration on Facebook were associated with less frequent posting of all types of health-related posts (all p-values ≤ 0.05). Future research should explore the reasons users post health-related content on Facebook and how they evaluate the veracity of the health-related content they see and post on Facebook.