PurposeSocial media greatly enhances public access to health information and thus attracts older adults who tend to attach more importance to their health. This study aims to identify the factors that contribute to the likelihood of older adults' health information sharing on social media.Design/methodology/approachBy drawing on health belief (HBM) and elaboration likelihood models (ELM), a novel conceptual model integrating older adults' health belief and information processing is established to uncover the factors. Online survey data from 290 Chinese older adult users of WeChat, the most popular social media platform in China, were collected to test the research model.FindingsAs health belief-related variables, perceived susceptibility is positively associated with health information-sharing intention (HISI), while perceived severity negatively influences HISI, which is contrary to prior findings. For information processing, the positive impacts of argument quality and source credibility on HISI are fully mediated by perceived usefulness.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first studies to explore the initiative use of information and communication technology among older adults. The new theoretical perspective proposed herein considers health belief and information processing perspectives in a complementary manner and can facilitate an overall analysis of the factors influencing older adults' HISI in a social media context. This study also furthers understandings of the ELM and expands the theory of HBM to take the age of decision makers into account.

No abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of the environment of a virtual community (users’ interactions inside and outside of a community which are defined as the fundamental and supplemental interaction (FI and SI), respectively) on its users’ knowledge sharing (KS) and the underlying cognitive mechanism. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted among the users who had experience of participating in a domain knowledge specific online community. A total of 479 valid observations were collected. Structural equation modeling was used to test the research model and hypotheses. Findings – The empirical results show that the fundamental interaction (FI) not only directly affects users’ knowledge acquisition (KA) and contribution, but also indirectly affects users’ KA and contribution partially through the users’ self-efficacy and outcome expectation. While the supplemental interaction (SI) negatively affects users’ KA, it positively affects the users’ knowledge contribution and this effect is also partially mediated by the users’ self-efficacy and outcome expectation. The mediators of self-efficacy and outcome expectation play distinct role on users’ KA and contribution in virtual communities (VCs). Originality/value – This research conceptualizes the users’ interaction inside and outside of a particular virtual community as FI and SI, respectively, and reveals the mechanism how they affect users’ KA and contribution. The results shed light on the literature of KS in VCs and extend social cognitive theory's application into a complex environment with blended interactions in a virtual world. The research also provides insights for virtual community designers, administrators and users.

Purpose More and more older adults begin to use the mobile internet to obtain information. However, the quality of information obtained through mobile internet by older adults is hard to be guaranteed. The purpose of this paper is to study the role of family support when older adults obtain information from mobile internet. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted a survey of 263 older adults who owned mobile internet devices such as smartphones or tablet PCs. The theory hypotheses are tested using partial least squares techniques. Findings For older adults, family support is the influencing factor of mobile internet literacy improvement. Family emotional support has stronger impacts on the improvement both of mobile internet skill literacy and of mobile internet information literacy than family cognitive support has. Furthermore, the improvement of both mobile internet skill literacy and of mobile internet information literacy hs positive impacts on the quality improvement of obtained information by older adults. Practical implications This paper gives advice on how family members can support older adults during their obtaining information from mobile internet to improve their mobile internet literacy and quality of obtained information. Originality/value This study examines the factors that influence mobile internet literacy and quality of obtained information among older adults from the perspective of family support in the Chinese mobile internet context. The research results enrich the internet literacy theory and the information quality theory.

No abstract