JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

For many of their users, social media have become the source of choice for health information on COVID-19 despite possible detrimental consequences. Several studies have analysed health information-searching behaviour and mental health. Some of these studies examined users’ intentions in searching health information on social media and the impact of social media use on mental health in Indonesia.

Objective:

This study investigates both active and passive participation in social media, shed-ding light on cofounding effects from these different forms of engagement. In addition, this study analyses the role trust in social media platforms and its effect on public health outcomes. Thus, the purpose of this study is to analyze the social media usage impact on COVID-19 protective behavior in Indonesia.

Methods:

We used primary data from an online survey. We processed 414 answers to a structured questionnaire to evaluate the relationship between these users' active and passive partici¬pation in social media, trust in social media, anxiety, self-efficacy and protec¬tive behavior to COVID-19. We model the data using partial least square structural equation modeling.

Results:

We found that active contribution of content related to COVID-19 on social media is positively correlated with anxiety; while passive participa¬tion increases self-efficacy and, in turn, protective behavior. This study found that active participation is associated with negative health outcome, while passive participation has the opposite effects.

Conclusions:

Public health campaigns can use social media for health promotion. Public health campaigns should post positive messages and distil information parsimoniously the information received to avoid unnecessary and possibly counter-productive increased anxiety of the users.