Halit AYTAR, Emine EMEKTAR, Yunsur ÇEVİK, Gülşah ÇIKRIKÇI IŞIK, Hasan BALIKÇI

The impact of social media news on the health perception of society

Aim: Aim of the study is to demonstrate impact of health news at social media on the health perception of society, among healthcarerelated and non-healthcare related participants, under the subheadings of reliability of that news, doctor-patient relationship, patienthealth attitudes and health advertising and marketing. Social media has some benefits on health communication such as moreaccessible, shared health information; but also has some limitations such as lack of reliability, confidentiality, and privacy. Therebymisinformation through these platforms may lead the society to gain wrong health attitudes.Material and Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey study consisted of two sections. First section was based on thedemographic data and second section consisted of 25 questions about the attitudes related to social media and internet news tobe answered using the Likert scale. Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version22.0. Responses of the survey compared between the healthcare related and non-healthcare related participants by using MannWhitney U test P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: Among 1,622 returned valid questionnaires %66.8 of the participant were healthcare related. For all subheadings responseswere significantly different among healthcare related and non-healthcare related participants (p < 0.05 for all circumstances).Conclusion: This survey demonstrated that perception attitudes of the society formed by health content shares on social media weresignificantly different between the groups. It could be mentioned that healthcare related population was more conservative and hada critical approach on this issue, on the other hand non-healthcare related population more frequently impressed by that kind ofshares and tend to accept them directly. So raising awareness about digital health literacy is a public health necessity to ensure theaccess to valid and reliable information.

PDF

___

1. Alshakhs F, Alanzi T. The evolving role of social media in health-care delivery: measuring the perception of health-care professionals in Eastern Saudi Arabia. J Multidiscip Healthc 2018;11:473-79.
2. Andrew Perrin. “Social Networking Usage: 2005- 2015.” Pew Research Center. 2015. Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/08/2015/ Social-Networking-Usage-2005-2015/ Access date: 10.10.2019
3. Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu Haber Bülteni Hanehalkı Bilişim Teknolojileri (BT) Kullanım Araştırması, 2018. Avaliable at: http://tuik.gov.tr/PreHaberBultenleri. do?id=27819 Access date: 10.10.2019
4. Keller B, Labrique A, Jain KM, et al. Mind the gap: social media engagement by public health researchers. J Med Internet Res 2014;16:8.
5. Korda H, Itani Z. Harnessing social media for health promotion and behavior change. Health Promot Pract 2013;14:15-23.
6. Moorhead SA, Hazlett DE, Harrison L, et al. A new dimension of health care: systematic review of the uses, benefits, and limitations of social media for health communication. J Med Internet Res 2013;15:85.
7. Sun J, Liu S, Liu Q, et al. Impact of adverse media reporting on public perceptions of the doctor-patient relationship in China: an analysis with propensity score matching method. BMJ Open 2018;8:022455.
8. Vance K, Howe W, Dellavalle RP. Social internet sites as a source of public health information. Dermatol Clin 2009;27:133-6.
9. Reissis D, Shiatis A, Nikkhah D. Advertising on Social Media: The Plastic Surgeon’s Prerogative. Aesthet Surg J 2017;37:1-2.
10. Zhao Y, Zhang J. Consumer health information seeking in social media: a literature review. Health Info Libr J 2017;34:268-83.
11. Dalmer NK. Questioning reliability assessments of health information on social media. J Med Libr Assoc 2017;105:61-8.
12. Madathil KC, Rivera-Rodriguez AJ, Greenstein JS, et al. Healthcare information on YouTube: A systematic review. Health Informatics J 2015;21:173-94.
13. Lau AY1, Gabarron E, Fernandez-Luque L, et al. Social media in health--what are the safety concerns for health consumers? Health Inf Manag 2012;41:30-5.
14. Fernandez-Luque L, Staccini P. All that Glitters Is not Gold: Consumer Health Informatics and Education in the Era of Social Media and Health Apps. Findings from the Yearbook 2016 Section on Consumer Health Informatics. Yearb Med Inform 2016;1:188-93.
15. Lee K, Hoti K, Hughes JD, et al. Dr Google and the consumer: a qualitative study exploring the navigational needs and online health informationseeking behaviors of consumers with chronic health conditions. J Med Internet Res 2014;16:262.
16. Orr D, Baram-Tsabari A, Landsman K. Social media as a platform for health-related public debates and discussions: the Polio vaccine on Facebook. Isr J Health Policy Res 2016;5:34.
17. Boyer C, Dolamic L. Automated Detection of HONcode Website Conformity Compared to Manual Detection: An Evaluation. J Med Internet Res. 2015;17:135.
18. Smailhodzic E, Hooijsma W, Boonstra A, et al. Social media use in healthcare: A systematic review of effects on patients and on their relationship with healthcare professionals. BMC Health Serv Res 2016;16:442.
19. Reddy IR, Ukrani J, Indla V, et al. Violence against doctors: A viral epidemic? Indian J Psychiatry 2019;61:782-5.
20. Moustafa K. Internet and Advertisement. Sci Eng Ethics 2016;22:293-6.
21. Mackey TK, Liang BA. Global reach of direct-toconsumer advertising using social media for illicit online drug sales. J Med Internet Res 2013;15:105.
22. Rêgo JF, Lopes G, Riechelmann RP, et al. A “miracle” cancer drug in the era of social media: A survey of Brazilian oncologists’ opinions and experience with phosphoethanolamine. Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992). 2017;63:70-7.
23. Sharma V, Holmes JH, Sarkar IN. Identifying Complementary and Alternative Medicine Usage Information from Internet Resources. A Systematic Review. Methods Inf Med 2016;55:322-32.
24. Huesch MD, Galstyan A, Ong MK, et al. Using social media, online social networks, and internet search as platforms for public health interventions: A pilot study. Health Serv Res 2016;51:1273-90.
25. Wakefield MA, Loken B, Hornik RC. Use of mass media campaigns to change health behaviour. Lancet 2010;376:1261-71.