Social media in health communication: A literature review of information quality

Cancer misinformation on social media

Social media is widely used globally by patients, families of patients, health professionals, scientists, and other stakeholders who seek and share information related to cancer. Despite many benefits of social media for cancer care and research, there is also a substantial risk of exposure to misinformation, or inaccurate information about cancer. Types of misinformation vary from inaccurate information about cancer risk factors or unproven treatment options to conspiracy theories and public relations articles or advertisements appearing as reliable medical content. Many characteristics of social media networks-such as their extensive use and the relative ease it allows to share information quickly-facilitate the spread of misinformation. Research shows that inaccurate and misleading health-related posts on social media often get more views and engagement (e.g., likes, shares) from users compared with accurate information. Exposure to misinformation can have downstream implications for health-related attitudes and behaviors. However, combatting misinformation is a complex process that requires engagement from media platforms, scientific and health experts, governmental organizations, and the general public. Cancer experts, for example, should actively combat misinformation in real time and should disseminate evidence-based content on social media. Health professionals should give information prescriptions to patients and families and support health literacy. Patients and families should vet the quality of cancer information before acting upon it (e.g., by using publicly available checklists) and seek recommended resources from health care providers and trusted organizations. Future multidisciplinary research is needed to identify optimal ways of building resilience and combating misinformation across social media.

Instagram for audience engagement: an evaluation of CERC framework in the GCC nations for digital public health during the Covid-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

In this study, we investigate the utilization of Instagram by public health ministries across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations to disseminate health-related information during the COVID-19 pandemic. With Instagram's visual-centric approach and high user engagement, the research aims to investigate its critical yet complex role in information dissemination amid a health crisis.

METHODS

To examine how Instagram communication strategies align with the CDC's Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) framework, we employ the content analysis method. This approach helps to evaluate the effectiveness and challenges of employing Instagram for health communication within a region known for its significant social media usage.

RESULTS

Findings indicate that Instagram serves as a vital platform for the rapid dissemination of health information in the GCC, leveraging its visual capabilities and wide reach. The GCC ministries of health utilized Instagram to demonstrate a consistent and strategic approach to communicate essential COVID-19 related information. Kuwait and Bahrain were the most active of all the assessed ministries with respect to the number of engagement metrics (likes and comments). Most of the posts, as per the CERC framework, were informational and related to vaccine infection and death cases. The second most salient theme in line with the CERC framework was about promoting actions, followed by Instagram posts about activities, events, and campaigns.

CONCLUSIONS

The research underscores Instagram's potential as a powerful tool in enhancing public health resilience and responsiveness during health emergencies in the GCC. It suggests that leveraging social media, with careful consideration of its affordances, can contribute significantly to effective health communication strategies in times of crisis.

The individual-level effects of social media campaigns related to healthy eating, physical activity, and healthy weight: A narrative review

Objective

Social media are promising channels for health communication promoting positive weight-related behaviors, but no prior studies have synthesized evidence on the independent effects of social media campaigns focused on promoting healthy eating, physical activity (PA), and healthy weight. This study aimed to fill that gap and inform future social media-based obesity-prevention research and practice by reviewing findings from studies testing the effects of such campaigns on individual-level cognitive, behavioral, and anthropometric outcomes.

Method

The Web of Science and PubMed databases were searched for peer-reviewed articles published between 2012 and 2023 that explored the independent effects of social media campaigns related to healthy eating, PA, or weight management. Study characteristics and outcomes were extracted and summarized.

Results

Eleven studies were included in this review describing campaigns targeting healthy eating-related outcomes (e.g., fruit and vegetable consumption, meal preparation, nutrition label reading), PA, or weight management. Most campaigns (n = 7) were developed by universities or research centers. Priority audiences included parents, adult females, adolescents, college students, and adult government employees. The majority (n = 8) of the campaigns used single platforms, with the most common being Facebook, Instagram, blogs, and YouTube. Campaigns had mixed effects on cognitive outcomes (e.g., intention, attitude, knowledge), behavioral outcomes (e.g., food choices, PA), and anthropometric outcomes (e.g., weight, waist circumference).

Conclusion

Social media campaigns focused on promoting healthy eating, PA, and healthy weight had mixed effects on individual-level cognitive, behavioral, and anthropometric outcomes. Various limitations of the included studies make it difficult to ascertain which factors influence campaign effectiveness. Advancing knowledge in this area is important, particularly given social media's widespread use and potential for broad reach. New research with features such as rigorous study designs, larger and more diverse samples, and strong theoretical foundations may provide important insights into what types of interventions are effective or not and under what conditions.

Evaluating the perceptions of pesticide use, safety, and regulation and identifying common pesticide-related topics on Twitter

Synthetic pesticides are important agricultural tools that increase crop yield and help feed the world's growing population. These products are also highly regulated to balance benefits and potential environmental and human risks. Public perception of pesticide use, safety, and regulation is an important topic necessitating discussion across a variety of stakeholders from lay consumers to regulatory agencies since attitudes toward this subject could differ markedly. Individuals and organizations can perceive the same message(s) about pesticides differently due to prior differences in technical knowledge, perceptions, attitudes, and individual or group circumstances. Social media platforms, like Twitter, include both individuals and organizations and function as a townhall where each group promotes their topics of interest, shares their perspectives, and engages in both well-informed and misinformed discussions. We analyzed public Twitter posts about pesticides by user group, time, and location to understand their communication behaviors, including their sentiments and discussion topics, using machine learning-based text analysis methods. We extracted tweets related to pesticides between 2013 and 2021 based on relevant keywords developed through a "snowball" sampling process. Each tweet was grouped into individual versus organizational groups, then further categorized into media, government, industry, academia, and three types of nongovernmental organizations. We compared topic distributions within and between those groups using topic modeling and then applied sentiment analysis to understand the public's attitudes toward pesticide safety and regulation. Individual accounts expressed concerns about health and environmental risks, while industry and government accounts focused on agricultural usage and regulations. Public perceptions are heavily skewed toward negative sentiments, although this varies geographically. Our findings can help managers and decision-makers understand public sentiments, priorities, and perceptions and provide insights into public discourse on pesticides. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2023;19:1581-1599. © 2023 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

Exploring 'quality' in science communication online: Expert thoughts on how to assess and promote science communication quality in digital media contexts

In recent years, the public visibility of science has greatly increased. In the digital media landscape, a wide range of players is now engaged in science communication via various online channels. While these developments offer opportunities, they also entail risks for the quality of science communication. This study explores how the quality of science communication can be assessed and promoted in the increasingly complex digital ecosystem. A two-wave survey with international science communication experts served as a basis to develop a quality framework for digital science communication and to formulate strategies to promote the quality of science communication online. Besides these outcomes, results hint at blind spots in the discourse of science communication quality that demand further investigation and reflection.

Factors affecting consumer attitudes towards using digital media platforms on health knowledge communication: Findings of cognition-affect-conation pattern

As the world enters the second year of the pandemic, many posts are marketed to promote products under the guise of spreading knowledge to fulfill the users' requirement for health knowledge. Current research, however, has primarily focused on methods to improve health literacy rather than the impact of this new form. To remedy this deficiency, this research use Cognition-Affect-Conation Pattern (CAC) to investigate digital media users and to determine attitudes towards this new form and influential. Data was collected in December 2021 from 314 users in Guangzhou, China, via a Likert-type scale developed by the researchers. Regression analyzes were also performed. Research has shown that consumer attitudes in health knowledge marketing fall within the standard learning hierarchy, with consumer self-cognition and information quality cognitions showing a positive relationship with their affect and conation. At the same time, affect did play a mediating role in this model. The results of our study provide constructive solutions for companies to optimize the communication environment of health spread in society. The findings not only provide researchers with a new perspective to study the impact of interactive digital media communication on health knowledge, but also help identify users' information needs and formulate effective strategies to increase consumers' understanding and application of health knowledge and products. Providing health knowledge content and leveraging digital media to develop well-established communication channels is important to foster relationships with customers.

Use of Social Media to View and Post Dentistry-related Information in Bahrain: A Cross-Sectional Study

OBJECTIVES

Healthcare-related information sharing via social media is on the rise following the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Dental practices primarily use social media to search, share, and communicate health-related information. Considering the increasing trend of using social media, the primary aim of the present study was to identify the use of social media by dentists and laypeople to post and view dentistry-related content in Bahrain.

METHODS

This questionnaire-based cross-sectional study included adult participants and dentists. A pretested validated questionnaire was administered. The chi-square test for association was used to assess the association between categorical outcomes. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

In total, 249 adult participants and 53 dentists were included. A substantial majority (83.5%) of the participants reported that they always used social media to view dentistry-related content, and 69.8% of the dentists felt that patients who use social media have better oral health awareness. A longer duration of social media usage showed significant associations with particularly viewing dentistry-related content (p = 0.008) and contacting dentists directly through social media for consultation (p = 0.055).

CONCLUSIONS

An extremely high percentage of the younger population in Bahrain is using various social media to discuss dentistry. This engagement should be wisely managed to promote dentistry-related information sharing, which can lead to increased awareness related to overall dental health. There is a definite need to enforce certain standard operating procedures in every country that will prevent the misuse of this technological advancement.

Development of Principles for Health-Related Information on Social Media: Delphi Study

Background

Health-related misinformation can be propagated via social media and is a threat to public health. Several quality assessment tools and principles to evaluate health-related information in the public domain exist; however, these were not designed specifically for social media.

Objective

This study aims to develop Principles for Health-related Information on Social Media (PRHISM), which can be used to evaluate the quality of health-related social media content.

Methods

A modified Delphi approach was used to obtain expert consensus on the principles and functions of PRHISM. Health and social media experts were recruited via Twitter, email, and snowballing. A total of 3 surveys were administered between February 2021 and May 2021. The first survey was informed by a literature review and included open-ended questions and items from existing quality assessment tools. Subsequent surveys were informed by the results of the proceeding survey. Consensus was deemed if ≥80% agreement was reached, and items with consensus were considered relevant to include in PRHISM. After the third survey, principles were finalized, and an instruction manual and scoring tool for PRHISM were developed and circulated to expert participants for final feedback.

Results

A total of 34 experts consented to participate, of whom 18 (53%) responded to all 3 Delphi surveys. In total, 13 principles were considered relevant and were included in PRHISM. When the instructions and PRHISM scoring tool were circulated, no objections to the wording of the final principles were received.

Conclusions

A total of 13 quality principles were included in the PRHISM tool, along with a scoring system and implementation tool. The principles promote accessibility, transparency, provision of authoritative and evidence-based information and support for consumers’ relationships with health care providers. PRHISM can be used to evaluate the quality of health-related information provided on social media. These principles may also be useful to content creators for developing high-quality health-related social media content and assist consumers in discerning high- and low-quality information.

Exposure to Electronic Media, Smoking and Alcohol Drinking Among Guyanese Adults

Use of electronic media has been shown to be associated with tobacco and alcohol consumption behavior among adult population. Currently, not much is known about the risk factors of tobacco and alcohol consumption in Guyana. The present study aimed to explore the association between exposure to electronic media and tobacco and alcohol consumption by adjusting for the sociodemographic correlates.