Social media use in health awareness

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Social media is being increasingly used for health awareness. It is not only used to promote health and wellness but also to motivate and guide public for various disease and ailments. Use of social media was proven to be cornerstone for awareness during COVID-19 management. [1] In recent times, it is one of the most cost effective tool for cardiovascular health awareness since it can be used to motivate people for adoption of healthy lifestyle practices. [2] Over the span of a decade, cardiologist Dr. Om Murti Anil utilized social media to significantly impact the public about cardiovascular health awareness. [3] Similarly, social media is proven to be useful for various chronic and incurable diseases where patients form groups and connect to each other for sharing of knowledge. [4] Similarly health professionals, health institutions and various other individuals and organizations have their own social media accounts for health information, awareness, guidance or motivation for their patients. [5] The utilization of social media for health awareness campaigns has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. The history of utilizing social media in health campaigns can be traced back to the early 2000s with the rise of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. [6]

Contents

Health campaigns

Health campaigns especially for chronic diseases like Cancer and heart diseases are increasingly common on different social media platforms because Social media serves as a cost-effective medium for launching and promoting health campaigns. Many organizations and governmental bodies use platforms like Twitter and Instagram to reach a wide audience. [7] [8]

Patient education

Patients increasingly turn to social media for health communication and health-related information. Online health communities, forums, and blogs enable individuals to share their experiences, offer support, and seek advice from peers. Healthcare professionals also use social media to provide valuable insights and address common health concerns. [9]

Influencers and advocates

Influential figures and health advocates like Doctor Mike, Willie Ong on social media platforms have emerged as key drivers of health awareness. They use their large followings to educate the public about various health topics and share personal stories that resonate with their audience. [10] social media influencers have huge potential for health awareness and its getting slowly recognized.

Use of social media for health awareness carries more significant in lower and middle income countries (LMICs) where health infrastructure are poor and access to medical care is limited. In LMICs non communicable diseases are major cause of premature deaths. Social media can be used as very low cost tools to prevent these NCDs for wider population.

Challenges

While social media is a powerful tool for health awareness, it comes with challenges. Misinformation can spread rapidly, potentially leading to incorrect or harmful health practices. Ensuring the accuracy of health-related information on social media is an ongoing concern. [11]

Privacy and ethical issues

The sharing of personal health information on social media raises privacy and ethical concerns. Striking a balance between raising awareness and respecting individuals' privacy remains a delicate issue. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coronary artery disease</span> Reduction of blood flow to the heart muscle due to plaque buildup in the hearts arteries

Coronary artery disease (CAD), also called coronary heart disease (CHD), ischemic heart disease (IHD), myocardial ischemia, or simply heart disease, involves the reduction of blood flow to the heart muscle due to build-up of atherosclerotic plaque in the arteries of the heart. It is the most common of the cardiovascular diseases. Types include stable angina, unstable angina, and myocardial infarction. A common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may travel into the shoulder, arm, back, neck, or jaw. Occasionally it may feel like heartburn. Usually symptoms occur with exercise or emotional stress, last less than a few minutes, and improve with rest. Shortness of breath may also occur and sometimes no symptoms are present. In many cases, the first sign is a heart attack. Other complications include heart failure or an abnormal heartbeat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statin</span> Class of drugs used to lower cholesterol levels

Statins, also known as HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, are a class of lipid-lowering medications that reduce illness and mortality in those who are at high risk of cardiovascular disease. They are the most commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardiovascular disease</span> Class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases, heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmia, congenital heart disease, valvular heart disease, carditis, aortic aneurysms, peripheral artery disease, thromboembolic disease, and venous thrombosis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Heart Association</span> American non-profit health organization

The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and deaths caused by cardiovascular disease and stroke. They are known for publishing guidelines on cardiovascular disease and prevention, standards on basic life support, advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), pediatric advanced life support (PALS), and in 2014 issued the first guidelines for preventing strokes in women. The American Heart Association is also known for operating a number of highly visible public service campaigns starting in the 1970s, and also operates several fundraising events.

Community health refers to simple health services that are delivered by laymen outside hospitals and clinics. Community health is also the subset of public health that is taught to and practiced by clinicians as part of their normal duties. Community health volunteers and community health workers work with primary care providers to facilitate entry into, exit from and utilization of the formal health system by community members.

Social marketing is a marketing approach which focuses on influencing behavior with the primary goal of achieving "common good." It utilizes the elements of commercial marketing and applies them to social concepts. However, to see social marketing as only the use of standard commercial marketing practices to achieve non-commercial goals is an oversimplified view. Social marketing has existed for some time, but has only started becoming a common term in recent decades. It was originally done using newspapers and billboards and has adapted to the modern world in many of the same ways commercial marketing has. The most common use of social marketing in today's society is through social media.

Public health surveillance is, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), "the continuous, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health-related data needed for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice." Public health surveillance may be used to track emerging health-related issues at an early stage and find active solutions in a timely manner. Surveillance systems are generally called upon to provide information regarding when and where health problems are occurring and who is affected.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Personalized medicine</span> Medical model that tailors medical practices to the individual patient

Personalized medicine, also referred to as precision medicine, is a medical model that separates people into different groups—with medical decisions, practices, interventions and/or products being tailored to the individual patient based on their predicted response or risk of disease. The terms personalized medicine, precision medicine, stratified medicine and P4 medicine are used interchangeably to describe this concept though some authors and organisations use these expressions separately to indicate particular nuances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Non-communicable disease</span> Medical condition

A non-communicable disease (NCD) is a disease that is not transmissible directly from one person to another. NCDs include Parkinson's disease, autoimmune diseases, strokes, heart diseases, cancers, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, cataracts, and others. NCDs may be chronic or acute. Most are non-infectious, although there are some non-communicable infectious diseases, such as parasitic diseases in which the parasite's life cycle does not include direct host-to-host transmission.

The World Heart Federation (WHF) is a non-governmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, formed in 1978. WHF is recognized by the World Health Organization as its leading NGO partner in cardiovascular disease prevention.

Online health communities are online social networks related to health. They primarily provide a means for patients and their families to learn about illnesses, to seek and offer social support, and to connect with others in similar circumstances. These online groups can be composed of individuals with illnesses, groups of medical professionals with shared interests, non-professional caregivers and family of patients, or a combination. The term "online health community" is primarily academic jargon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myocardial perfusion imaging</span> Nuclear medicine imaging method

Myocardial perfusion imaging or scanning is a nuclear medicine procedure that illustrates the function of the heart muscle (myocardium).

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "the sum of activity and interventions required to ensure the best possible physical, mental, and social conditions so that patients with chronic or post-acute cardiovascular disease may, by their own efforts, preserve or resume their proper place in society and lead an active life". CR is a comprehensive model of care delivering established core components, including structured exercise, patient education, psychosocial counselling, risk factor reduction and behaviour modification, with a goal of optimizing patient's quality of life and reducing the risk of future heart problems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lifestyle medicine</span> Branch of medicine

Lifestyle medicine (LM) is a branch of medicine focused on preventive healthcare and self-care dealing with prevention, research, education, and treatment of disorders caused by lifestyle factors and preventable causes of death such as nutrition, physical inactivity, chronic stress, and self-destructive behaviors including the consumption of tobacco products and drug or alcohol abuse. The goal of LM is to improve individuals' health and wellbeing by applying the 6 pillars of lifestyle medicine (nutrition, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connection) to prevent chronic conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity. By focusing on these 6 areas to improve health, LM can prevent 80% of chronic illnesses and non-communicable diseases (NCD).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PatientsLikeMe</span> Health management social networking website

PatientsLikeMe (PLM) is an integrated community, health management, and real-world data platform. The platform currently has over 830,000 members who are dealing with more than 2,900 conditions, such as ALS, MS, and epilepsy. Data generated by patients themselves are collected and quantified with the goal of providing an environment for peer support and learning. These data capture the influences of different lifestyle choices, socio-demographics, conditions and treatments on a person's health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myocardial infarction</span> Interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart

A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may travel into the shoulder, arm, back, neck or jaw. Often such pain occurs in the center or left side of the chest and lasts for more than a few minutes. The discomfort may occasionally feel like heartburn. Other symptoms may include shortness of breath, nausea, feeling faint, a cold sweat, feeling tired, and decreased level of consciousness. About 30% of people have atypical symptoms. Women more often present without chest pain and instead have neck pain, arm pain or feel tired. Among those over 75 years old, about 5% have had an MI with little or no history of symptoms. An MI may cause heart failure, an irregular heartbeat, cardiogenic shock or cardiac arrest.

Health communication is the study and practice of communicating promotional health information, such as in public health campaigns, health education, and between doctor and patient. The purpose of disseminating health information is to influence personal health choices by improving health literacy. Health communication is a unique niche in healthcare that allows professionals to use communication strategies to inform and influence decisions and actions of the public to improve health.

Patient participation is a trend that arose in answer to medical paternalism. Informed consent is a process where patients make decisions informed by the advice of medical professionals.

Overscreening, also called unnecessary screening, is the performance of medical screening without a medical indication to do so. Screening is a medical test in a healthy person who is showing no symptoms of a disease and is intended to detect a disease so that a person may prepare to respond to it. Screening is indicated in people who have some threshold risk for getting a disease, but is not indicated in people who are unlikely to develop a disease. Overscreening is a type of unnecessary health care.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artificial intelligence in healthcare</span> Overview of the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare

Artificial intelligence in healthcare is a term used to describe the use of machine-learning algorithms and software, or artificial intelligence (AI), to copy human cognition in the analysis, presentation, and understanding of complex medical and health care data, or to exceed human capabilities by providing new ways to diagnose, treat, or prevent disease. Specifically, AI is the ability of computer algorithms to approximate conclusions based solely on input data.

References

  1. ↑ Karhu, Mari; Suoheimo, Mari; Häkkilä, Jonna (2021-05-12). "People's Perspectives on Social Media Use during COVID-19 Pandemic". 20th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (PDF). New York, NY, USA: ACM. pp. 123–130. doi:10.1145/3490632.3490666. ISBN   9781450386432. S2CID   247085160.
  2. ↑ Ladeiras-Lopes, Ricardo; Baciu, Lavinia; Grapsa, Julia; Sohaib, Afzal; Vidal-Perez, Rafael; Bohm, Allan; Silvola, Harri; Gimenez, Maria Rubini; Muscoli, Saverio; Wallner, Markus; Rakisheva, Amina; Nagy, Vivien Klaudia; Cowie, Martin R.; Clarke, Sarah C.; Achenbach, Stephan (2020). "Social media in cardiovascular medicine: A contemporary review". European Heart Journal - Digital Health: 10–19. doi:10.1093/ehjdh/ztaa004. PMC   9707982 . PMID   36713964. (Erratum:  doi:10.1093/ehjdh/ztab098)
  3. ↑ https://kathmandupost.com/art-culture/2023/01/01/a-doctor-using-social-media-to-spread-health-awareness
  4. ↑ "How Social Media Support Groups Enhance Patient Experience".
  5. ↑ Bender, Jacqueline L.; Hueniken, Katrina; Eng, Lawson; Brown, M. Catherine; Kassirian, Shayan; Geist, Ilana; Balaratnam, Karmugi; Liang, Mindy; Paulo, Chelsea B.; Geist, Arielle; Rao, Pryangka; Magony, Alexander; Smith, Elliot C.; Xu, Wei; Liu, Geoffrey (September 2021). "Internet and social media use in cancer patients: association with distress and perceived benefits and limitations". Supportive Care in Cancer. 29 (9): 5273–5281. doi:10.1007/s00520-021-06077-0. ISSN   1433-7339. PMID   33651181. S2CID   232083963.
  6. ↑ "The Evolution of Social Media: How Did It Begin and Where Could It Go Next?". Maryville Online. 2020-05-28. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  7. ↑ "5 Effective Public Health Social Media Campaigns – Top Masters in Public Health Degrees" . Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  8. ↑ "Young female influencers energise the campaign against menstrual taboos in Nepal – and beyond". Healthy DEvelopments. 2022-05-12. Retrieved 2023-11-25.
  9. ↑ Chirumamilla, S.; Gulati, M. (2021). "Patient Education through Social media". Current Cardiology Reviews. 17 (2): 137–143. doi:10.2174/1573403X15666191120115107. PMC   8226210 . PMID   31752656.
  10. ↑ "What can we learn from health influencers on social media?". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  11. ↑ HealthManagement.org; shabbir-syed-abdul-1533818; FutureLearn. "Radiology Management, ICU Management, Healthcare IT, Cardiology Management, Executive Management". HealthManagement. Retrieved 2023-10-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ↑ Azer, Samy A. (2017-11-01). "Social Media Channels in Health Care Research and Rising Ethical Issues". AMA Journal of Ethics. 19 (11): 1061–1069. doi: 10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.11.peer1-1711 . ISSN   2376-6980. PMID   29168677.
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