Your Health Buddies Matter: Preferential Selection and Social Influence on Weight Management in an Online Health Social Network

A growing number of online social networks are designed with the intention to promote health by providing virtual space wherein individuals can seek and share information and support with similar others. Research has shown that real-world social networks have a significant influence on one's he...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health communication 2016-12, Vol.31 (12), p.1460-1471
Main Author: Meng, Jingbo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Body Weight Maintenance
Female
Health
Health Behavior
Health information
Health promotion
Health status
Humans
Inbreeding
Influence
Internet
Male
Management
Middle Aged
Motivation
Networking
Peer relationships
Self interest
Social behavior
Social interactions
Social Networking
Social networks
Social organization
Social Support
Virtual networks
Weight
Weight control
Weight loss
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Summary:A growing number of online social networks are designed with the intention to promote health by providing virtual space wherein individuals can seek and share information and support with similar others. Research has shown that real-world social networks have a significant influence on one's health behavior and outcomes. However, there is a dearth of studies on how individuals form social networks in virtual space and whether such online social networks exert any impact on individuals' health outcomes. Built on the Multi-Theoretical Multilevel (MTML) framework and drawing from literature on social influence, this study examined the mechanisms underlying the formation of an online health social network and empirically tested social influence on individual health outcomes through the network. Situated in a weight management social networking site, the study tracked a health buddy network of 709 users and their weight management activities and outcomes for 4 months. Actor-based modeling was used to test the joint dynamics of preferential selection and social influence among health buddies. The results showed that baseline, inbreeding, and health status homophily significantly predicted preferential selection of health buddies in the weight management social networking site, whereas self-interest in seeking experiential health information did not. The study also found peer influence of online health buddy networks on individual weight outcomes, such that an individual's odds of losing weight increased if, on average, the individual's health buddies were losing weight.
ISSN:1041-0236
1532-7027
DOI:10.1080/10410236.2015.1079760