Impact of Social Media Influencers to Promote Healthy Lifestyle behavior: A Review from the Self-Determination Approach

Abstract

Purpose: Malaysia as a rapidly developing country is now immersed in the current technology that makes people less active due to the use of modern equipment such as machines, remote controls, and push-button technology. Coronary heart disease, cancer, and stroke are examples of non-communicable diseases that are closely related to a sedentary lifestyle. Design/Methodology/Approach: The trend of social media influencers such as celebrities, fitness coaches, and health professionals as agents of healthy lifestyles showed positive impacts. The approach in this study will analyze the secondary existing literature on the impact of social media influencers on their followers to change their behavior through the content they create, sharing knowledge and skills to lead a healthy lifestyle. Findings: The conceptual framework was developed based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to predict an individual’s health behaviors and attraction to follow social media influencers in social media networking. Implications/Originality/Value: This study examined whether SDT concepts (basic psychological needs and  autonomous motivation) were associated with engagement in healthy lifestyle behaviors among social media users.