What role can social media play in improving population health?

While social media can be a useful tool to improve population health, its use needs to be calibrated to different target audiences, patterns of use, and care areas, according to a recent Singapore study.

“This study provides valuable insights into the views of population health stakeholders on the value of social media for population health work and can inform the design of population health programmes and interventions that harness social media platforms,” the researchers said. “Optimizing population health and community care requires a greater attention to enhancing person-centred care and health-social interface.”  

A total of 308 participants were given a 24-item questionnaire designed to assess their patterns of social media use, perceptions of its relevance and impact on population health, and top three areas that they think would benefit the most from social media.

All participants were delegates to the Singapore Population Health Conversations and Workshop, an annual event for practitioners and stakeholders. Less than half (44.5 percent) were health and social care professionals, while the rest had noncare roles in population health, including programme managers, students, administrators, and researchers. Almost all participants (97.7 percent) used social media. [BMC Public Health 2021;21:1312]

Messaging was the most dominant activity on social media (96.1 percent), followed by networking on platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn (61.4 percent). Respondents said that social media is most useful for population health in terms of promotion of healthy behaviours (60.7 percent), community engagement (47.7 percent), and preventive care (40.6 percent).

Most respondents agreed that caregivers would benefit the most from using social media as a communication tool for population health (87.3 percent). Social media would also be helpful for professionals in the community, according to 84.1 percent of respondents.

In terms of barriers to implementation, 56.2 percent said that the time investment needed from healthcare professionals was a problem, while 53.0 percent answered patient adoption.

Logistic regression analysis showed that older respondents were less likely to view social media as a useful tool for the promotion of healthy behaviours (odds ratio [OR], 0.34, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.19–0.60; p<0.001) or for preventive care (OR, 0.51, 95 percent CI, 0.32–0.82; p<0.05).

Participants with noncare roles, on the other hand, were more likely to agree that social media was useful for community engagement (OR, 1.74, 95 percent CI, 1.10–2.76; p<0.05) and less likely to believe so for preventive care (OR, 0.61, 95 percent CI, 0.38–0.97; p<0.05).

“Younger respondents would have grown up with digital technology and would therefore be more familiar with social media campaigns promoting healthy behaviours and encouraging preventive care,” the researchers explained. “In contrast, older respondents may not be active users of social media and hence were less likely to come across population health campaigns through social media platforms.”

“Health and social care professionals are directly involved in the care of the population, and therefore they are cognizant of the effort required for community engagement,” they said. “As relationships are built through in-person interactions which involve face-to-face contact, health and social care professionals responses might reflect the view that social media may not replace in-person communication when building and establishing relationships in the local community.”

Future studies should look at social media perceptions of patients and community members.