Exploring the Relationship Between Students’ Social Media Use and Video Sharing Intent in Promoting Health Communication

Abstract

Social media has demonstrated immense value in health communication initiatives. However, its facilitative role in enabling the productive dissemination of health-related short videos remains less explored. Moreover, it is still unclear how students positively utilize social media to share short videos for health communication. Therefore, this study employed a quantitative research design to investigate students’ social media use characteristics, time spent on social media, number of videos shared, and attitude toward video sharing. An online survey was conducted to obtain responses from students of Njala University in Sierra Leone. Spearman’s non-parametric correlation analysis was carried out to determine the nature of the relationship between the study variables. Results revealed a positive significant association between time spent on social media and number of videos shared. Although time spent on social media was also positively associated with positive attitude toward sharing videos, the relationship was not statistically significant. Furthermore, it was revealed that more students use WhatsApp and Facebook to share videos. This study offers practical implications for leveraging social media and short videos to enhance health communication.