Skin Health Information Seeking on Short Video Platforms in Indonesia: Mixed Methods Approach

Abstract

Abstract Background Many users have now switched to using short video platforms as the main channel in their search for skin health information. With high internet penetration and a large market for the skincare industry, short video platforms play an important role in the “beauty discovery” process and purchase decisions. However, the increasing consumption of skin health content is also accompanied by the risk of misinformation, uneven content quality, and the dominance of creators who are not health professionals. Therefore, it is important to determine what factors affect the use of short video platforms in the search for skin health information. Objective By adopting the stimulus-organism-response framework, health belief model, and media richness theory, this study aims to analyze the factors that influence the use of short video platforms in the search for skin health information. Methods This study used a mixed methods approach by distributing an online survey to 603 respondents and conducting interviews with 30 interviewees. Survey data were analyzed using the covariance-based structural equation modeling method, and qualitative data were analyzed using the thematic analysis method. Results The results of this study found that perceived usefulness (=.01), attitude (=.02), perceived severity (=.009), and perceived susceptibility (=.02) directly affected the behavior of seeking skin health information on short video platforms. Health content expressiveness (=.001) and personalized health insights (<.001) directly affected perceived usefulness. These findings support the media richness theory, which shows that the expressiveness of health content and personalization can increase the perception of the usability of short video platforms. Perceived interactivity has an influence on attitude (<.001), which then affects skin health information seeking on short video platforms (SHEs;=.02). Upward skin comparison also had a direct influence on skin stigmatization (<.001). Moreover, perceived severity (=.009) and perceived susceptibility (=.02) have an effect on SHEs. These findings confirm the health belief model’s theory that perception of the severity of a skin problem and the perception of a person’s likelihood of developing a skin problem can improve skin health seeking behavior. However, no effect of source credibility (=.17) and skin stigmatization (=.30) was found on SHEs. This is due to the user’s willingness to exchange aspects of trust in information sources such as the functionality of the platform and familiarity with the platform or the existence of other internal cognitive or psychological aspects that can be investigated in the future. Conclusions This study can provide guidance for the development of more effective health communication strategies in the digital era using short video platforms.