The Effects of Health Trainers’ SNS Content Information Characteristics on Health Risk Perception and Repurchase Behavioral Intention by Gender

This study aimed to examine the effects of health trainers’ SNS content characteristics on users’ perceived health risk and repurchase intention, and to investigate whether these relationships differ by gender. Data were collected from 228 subscribers who follow health trainers’ SNS content, and structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the hypothesized relationships. The results revealed, first, that the characteristics of SNS content provided by health trainers significantly reduced users’ perceived health risk and increased their repurchase intention. In addition, perceived health risk partially mediated the relationship between SNS content characteristics and repurchase intention, indicating that the qualitative aspects of SNS content play an important role in alleviating users’ risk perception and promoting positive consumption behaviors. Second, the multigroup analysis showed a gender difference only in the path from SNS content characteristics to perceived health risk, with women exhibiting a stronger effect than men. However, no significant gender differences were found in the paths from perceived health risk to repurchase intention or from SNS content characteristics to repurchase intention. These findings highlight the importance of enhancing the quality of SNS content to reduce perceived health risk and encourage continued engagement, and further suggest the need to consider gender-specific responses when developing SNS-based communication strategies for health and fitness services.