Introduction
Social media use has been increasing in public health and health promotion
because it can remove geographic and physical access barriers. However, these interventions
also have the potential to increase health inequities for people who do not have access to or
do not use social media. In this paper, we aim to assess the effects of interactive social media
interventions on health outcomes, behaviour change and health equity.
Methods
We conducted a rapid response overview of systematic reviews. We used a
sensitive search strategy to identify systematic reviews and included those that focussed
on interventions allowing two-way interaction such as discussion forums, social networks
(e.g. Facebook and Twitter), blogging, applications linked to online communities
and media sharing.
Results
Eleven systematic reviews met our inclusion criteria. Most interventions addressed by
the reviews included online discussion boards or similar strategies, either as stand-alone
interventions or in combination with other interventions. Seven reviews reported mixed effects
on health outcomes and healthy behaviours. We did not find disaggregated analyses across
characteristics associated with disadvantage, such as lower socioeconomic status or age.
However, some targeted studies reported that social media interventions were effective in
specific populations in terms of age, socioeconomic status, ethnicities and place of residence.
Four reviews reported qualitative benefits such as satisfaction, finding information and
improved social support.
Conclusion
Social media interventions were effective in certain populations at risk for
disadvantage (youth, older adults, low socioeconomic status, rural), which indicates that
these interventions may be effective for promoting health equity. However, confirmation
of effectiveness would require further study. Several reviews raised the issue of
acceptability of social media interventions. Only four studies reported on the level of
intervention use and all of these reported low use. More research on established social
media platforms with existing social networks is needed, particularly in populations at
risk for disadvantage, to assess effects on health outcomes and health equity.
Interactive social media interventions for health behaviour change, health outcomes, and health equity in the adult population
