OVER-IDENTIFICATION WITH GENERALIZED HEALTH ADVICE ON SOCIAL MEDIA - A STUDY OF INDIAN WOMEN OVER 40

In today’s time, Social media has become one of the major sources of advice and information for most of its users. In this context, it becomes essential to understand how people interact with the easily available health related information and advice and relate it to their individual circumstances. It is also essential to understand the extent of the users’ engagement with this information and the effects of this identification. While online health content can promote awareness and preventive care, its generalized nature often overlooks individual variability, creating scope for over-identification with non-personalized advice. The present study explored this phenomenon of over-identification with generalized health-related content among Indian women aged 40 and above, a demographic navigating complex physical, hormonal, and psychosocial transitions. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research investigated how these women interpret, internalize, and relate to health narratives encountered on social media, and how such engagement influences their self-perception, health behaviors, and emotional well-being. This was accomplished by analyzing quantitative data (n=53), gathered through structured questionnaires, assessing patterns of exposure, perceived personal relevance, and behavioral responses to generalized digital health content as well as qualitative insights, obtained via semi-structured interviews (n=07) which delved into underlying motivations, cultural influences, and identity-related factors driving this over-identification. The findings revealed a significant positive correlation between Overidentification and Health Anxiety, r = .28, p .05. This indicates that higher levels of the tendency to overidentify were associated with higher health anxiety. Additionally, the social media engagement scores did not show a significant correlation with either Overidentification or Health Anxiety, highlighting that the underlying issue is not simply the ‘time spent online’ but the level of engagement with the content consumed, in addition to the meaning making process of the content. This process was better understood with the help of qualitative insights from interviews.