The Roles of Health Literacy in Influencing the Internet Users' Electronic Word of Mouth: A Socio-Demographic Comparative Study | ||
| Health Education and Health Promotion | ||
| Article 3, Volume 13, Issue 3, 2025, Pages 1001-1007 PDF (285.93 K) | ||
| Author | ||
| Nur Athirah Sumardi* | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Introduction: People nowadays are casually communicating, preferring the electronic approach basis rather than the conventional one. As a matter of fact, the post Covid-19 has witnessed more people becoming more health conscious, nurturing their protective nature by sharing various types of health information online, beyond the definition of acquaintances. Therefore, this research was conducted to investigate the impacts of health literacy towards electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) among Malaysia internet users in disseminating health information, based on the socio-demographic comparisons. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study involved 400 respondents, with proportionate quota sampling as the sampling technique. 100 samples were approached from each region of Peninsular Malaysia (Central, Southern, Northern and East Coast), who were then given a self-administered questionnaire with 56 items to be filled. This instrument was adapted from a well-established e-WOM questionnaire and New Short-Form Health Literacy Instrument (HLS-SF12). Findings: The results of multiple regression analyses have shown that the three domains of health literacy have better explained e-WOM (highest R2 values) among respondents who were male, 41 to 50 years old, with secondary education and self-employed. Nonetheless, more significant influences of health literacy domains towards the dependent variable found among the respondents who were female, 18-30 years old, with bachelor’s degree and currently were not working. Conclusion: There were contradictory results in comparison to the previous studies which were justifiable, since the settings and respondents were not the same. Meanwhile, the government should play its role in shifting society's e-WOM to a positive transmission communication process. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Health Literacy; Health Care; Disease Prevention; Health promotion; Electronic Word of Mouth; Socio-Demographic; Health Information | ||
| References | ||
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