Abstract:

In the last decade, İnternet and social media have become a phenomenon for both individuals and business. While individuals are using social media for interacting with others, expanding networks, sharing experiences and making comments, organizations began to use social media in order to reach target groups, interact with clients and promote products and services. Also, social media has changed the nature of the communication between the organizations and the clients In many academic researches, it is found that internet and social media are mostly used for health information seeking and the use of social media is more popular for the young adults. The aim of this study is to determine the online health information seeking behavior of young adults. Also, the study was designed as a descriptive research and the survey method was used to collect data in January 2015 among voluntary students during their final examinations. The survey was developed on PEW Research Centre’s Health Tracking Survey which was implemented in USA at 2012. The study’s sample consisted of 506 students who are the studying at Vocational High School of Health Services in Gazi University and Trakya University. The data obtained from the questionnaires were coded and computerized by the researchers, and, the frequency and percentage distributions were calculated using SPSS 22.0 statistic software. Comparison of the categorical data was carried out using Chi-square test. The values of P<0.05 were considered statistically significant. Totally, 506 students studying at two different universities participated in the study. It’s clear that young adults use social media tools for healthcare purposes, and the results indicate that Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social media sites used for health issues. Mobile applications related to physical exercise, diets and periodic tables are the most popular applications among young adults. It will be beneficial to carry out the necessary strategies to achieve reliable and accurate health information through the Internet and social media.

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