Social Networking Sites as Communication Tool for Dengue Related Healthcare and Wellness Information

Despite the fact the government agencies and healthcare organizations make numerous efforts to prevent and control dengue epidemic, still it is a challenge. Lack of citizen's awareness of the infectious disease is one of the reasons that hampers their effectiveness. The need to re-examine and understand how the public at large view the dengue monitoring and prevention efforts motivates this study. Knowing the popularity and reach of social networking sites (SNS), understanding their strengths and weaknesses as health education tool would be a timely call. This empirical study aims to integrate social support theory to an existing theoretical model to test the users' intention to use SNS for healthcare and wellness information focusing on dengue related information. The current study found that Malaysians preferred to use SNS for dengue related healthcare and wellness information. This result suggests that dengue related monitoring and prevention activities can consider to use SNS as a potential communication tool to increase its reach to citizens.