Abstract
The internet has been recognized as one of the common health-seeking platforms that widely used to maintain physical and mental wellness. Malaysian internet users make use of the connection to obtain as their fundamental basis for a lifestyle change and to meet the difference needs, especially young adults who grown up in this technology era. There are little or limited research conducted particularly on young adult’s health information seeking behavior. The objective of this study is to determine the underlying factors influencing the utilization of internet for information seeking in the context of health among young adults in Malaysia. A total of 370 private university young adults were chosen randomly to take part in this quantitative research via convenience sampling. The research objectives were examined with the theoretical support of Health Belief Model and Technology Acceptance Model. Four underlying variables behind the influences of internet usage for health information seeking were recognized. The major findings of this study indicate that perceived usefulness was appropriate to act as the main predictor which empowering young adults to possess digital health sources from the web. Limitations are taken into consideration; future researchers are encouraged to expand study to bigger demographic group and acquire in-depth information using qualitative method on other underlying factors to better comprehend young adults’ attitude towards the use of technology communication for health support. This study is appropriate to act as guidance which ease for health provider to determine the strategies to come out with health care websites best targeting on young adults. Malaysia government could then address these barriers and generate alternatives to minimize or eliminate the barriers to increase the prevalence of health information seeking activity among young adults.
Highlights
The improvement of technology has resulted in many significant impacts in every aspect of our lives, from the way we communicate to the way we acquire resources and information
Hypothesis 1 Based on the results shown in Table 3, there was a positive significant relationship between the two variables (r = 0.222, n = 370, p < 0.05), this indicated that when health consciousness increases, the internet usage for health information seeking increases
Our findings provide a better insight on how perceived severity, perceived usefulness, health consciousness, and perceived susceptibility directly or indirectly bring an impact on internet usage for health information seeking among young adults
Summary
The improvement of technology has resulted in many significant impacts in every aspect of our lives, from the way we communicate to the way we acquire resources and information. The term “information seeking” is defined as how people seek, need, and use information differently. Examples of the usage of the internet include communication, entertainment, obtaining information, and social networking (Robson & Robinson, 2015). According to the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (2017), a survey on internet usage in Malaysia stated that 77.2% of Malaysian do health information seeking. The internet has become an essential element of our lives and has been recognized as one of the common communication tools that we used for information seeking to meet different needs
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