Prediction of healthy lifestyle behavior of individuals seeking information in online communities with information search strategies and healthy life awareness variables

The internet, by its nature, brings together individuals who approach information with the same purpose in similar online spaces. Individuals who come together for the same purpose, as a planned behavioral pattern, sometimes seek to guide their daily routines and inform themselves in these areas. In this sense, health is an indispensable pursuit for individuals. Unlike in the past, individuals seek to acquire health-related information through these channels not only by choosing for themselves but also through planned and conscious behavior based on the information they choose. Therefore, this study aims to reveal the impact of healthy lifestyle awareness among individuals in online communities on healthy lifestyles and the role of information-seeking strategies in this regard. For this purpose, a correlational research design, a quantitative research design, was employed. Data obtained from 600 participants using convenience sampling, a non-probability sampling method, was analyzed using SPSS and AMOS programs, and hypotheses developed within the framework of a structural equation model designed to reveal the relationships between variables were tested. The analyses revealed that healthy lifestyle awareness has a significant impact on online information-seeking strategies and a healthy lifestyle, and similarly, online information-seeking strategies significantly impact a healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, online information-seeking strategies were found to partially mediate the relationship between healthy lifestyle awareness and a healthy lifestyle. This study has the potential to contribute to the literature given its focus and the empirical findings on the variables it explores