Social Media, Risk Perceptions Related to COVID‐19, and Health Outcomes

Author(s):  
Kevin B. Wright
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (13) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Leena Lohiniva ◽  
Jussi Sane ◽  
Katja Sibenberg ◽  
Taneli Puumalainen ◽  
Mika Salminen

Understanding risk perceptions of the public is critical for risk communication. In February 2020, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare started collecting weekly qualitative data on coronavirus disease (COVID-19) risk perception that informs risk communication efforts. The process is based on thematic analysis of emails and social media messages from the public and identifies factors linked to appraisal of risk magnitude, which are developed into risk communication recommendations together with health and communication experts.


Blood ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 16-17
Author(s):  
David A. Sallman ◽  
Tracey Iraca ◽  
Casey L. O'Connell ◽  
Rafael Bejar ◽  
Sandra Kurtin

Background: Patients with MDS continue to report gaps in knowledge, particularly where understanding of disease risk, prognosis and treatment options are concerned.1 A recent online social media survey on experiences in myelodysplastic syndromes revealed that patients/caregivers' (n=127) have a general lack of information about MDS and insufficient knowledge regarding treatment options and are unable to make fully informed decisions.2 Efforts to improve patient and caregiver understanding of MDS, including treatment options, are critical to individualized treatment planning and shared decision-making. MDS patients commonly use multimedia and online resources to seek disease information.3 The MDSF introduced an online 'animated,' visual format educational program in July 2018 aimed at improving patient and caregiver knowledge.4 Evaluation of this project, including determining changes in patient knowledge and intent-to-implement a change in behavior are described as parameters of advancing and benefiting health outcomes. Methods: An Animated Patient's Guide to MDS (APG), a multimedia educational initiative was launched globally in July 2018. Recruitment was conducted via search engine marketing, social media promotions and email campaigns to MDS patients, caregivers and oncology provider audiences. Video views, duration of use, and learner responses to questions on the APG website were collected from July 2018 to July 2020 (24 months). Total APG views, most frequently viewed MDS animations and MDS expert videos were monitored on the website and on You Tube, to measure learner responses to outcome-based questions, and learner intent-to-implement changes. Results: A total of 151,231 views, including 58,947 unique visitors visited the APG online resource. Of these, 81% were from the U.S. and 19% from other countries (> 50 countries). Unique visitors from U.S. consisted of 28,171 patients, 15,279 family/caregivers, and 1,910 health providers. Among responses indicating a 'commitment to change', 96% reported they will 'use new information learned to better self-manage their MDS' (n = 917), 93% reported they 'will discuss information learned with their doctor' (n = 355), and 97% reported they 'plan to discuss MDS treatment options with their doctor' (n = 734). Patients who reported they 'learned new information about MDS' identified that they 'learned new general information about MDS' (95%, n = 193), 'learned new information about the diagnosis of MDS' (86%, n = 195), 'learned about new treatment options for MDS' (89%, n = 195), 'learned about new information related to bone marrow transplant in MDS' (85%, n = 177) and intended to 'ask their doctor about how to take part in healthcare decisions' (96%, n = 187). Conclusion: Multimedia education, including visual 'animated' formats, tailored to the needs of MDS patients has the potential to provide effective learning, increase knowledge and improve engagement in shared decision-making. Ongoing monitoring and further analysis of this multimedia educational resource for MDS patients will be necessary to understand how tailored education provided via this format impacts and benefits patient health outcomes. References: 1. Kurtin, S., Chang, E., & Bently, T. (2015). MDS patient characteristics associated with use of disease-modifying therapy: results of a patient survey. The International MDS Symposia, Washington, D.C. 2. Booth, A., Bell, T., Halhol, S., Pan, S., Welch, V., Merinopoulou, E., Lambrelli, D., Cox, A. Using Social Media to Uncover Treatment Experiences and Decisions in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia or Myelodysplastic Syndrome Who Are Ineligible for Intensive Chemotherapy. J Med Internet Res 2019 Nov; 21(11) e-14285 3. Kurtin, S., Harrison, L., Iraca, T., Hassan, A., Nichols, A. Health Technology Engagement and Communicative Health Literacy in Older Adults MDS Patients. Myelodysplastic Syndromes, 15th International Symposia on Myelodysplastic Syndromes. Copenhagen. May 8-1, 2019. Poster presentation. 4. MDS Foundation, Inc. and Mechanisms in Medicine Inc. (2019-06-26). You And MDS: An Animated Patient's Guide to Myelodysplastic Syndromes. www.YouAndMDS.com Disclosures Sallman: Agios, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celyad Oncology, Incyte, Intellia Therapeutics, Kite Pharma, Novartis, Syndax: Consultancy; Celgene, Jazz Pharma: Research Funding. Iraca:MDS Foundation: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Bejar:Celgene/BMS: Honoraria, Research Funding; Forty-Seven/Gilead: Honoraria; Genoptix/NeoGenomics: Honoraria; AbbVie/Genentech: Honoraria; Daiichi-Sankyo: Honoraria; Aptose Biosciences: Current Employment; Takeda: Honoraria, Research Funding; Astex/Otsuka: Honoraria. Kurtin:MDS Foundation: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.


Author(s):  
Kristin G. Maki ◽  
Aisha K. O'Mally

Social support has been linked with many health outcomes, ranging from heart disease to depression. Although its importance has been recognized, less is known about how individuals with chronic illnesses may use social media to provide and seek social support. This chapter's focus is on the way in which people with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) use social media to provide and solicit social support. A mixed-methods approach is utilized. First, posts from two social media platforms were qualitatively content analyzed. Second, the data were quantitatively analyzed to provide a finer-grained understanding of the messages. The results show informational support as the most prevalent on both sites, although there are some differences in content and use. This chapter's implications highlight the importance of social media as a conduit for social support among caregivers and individuals affected by T1D.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 211
Author(s):  
Philip Nyblom ◽  
Gaute Wangen ◽  
Vasileios Gkioulos

Social media are getting more and more ingrained into everybody’s lives. With people’s more substantial presence on social media, threat actors exploit the platforms and the information that people share there to deploy and execute various types of attacks. This paper focuses on the Norwegian population, exploring how people perceive risks arising from the use of social media, focusing on the analysis of specific indicators such as age, sexes and differences among the users of distinct social media platforms. For data collection, a questionnaire was structured and deployed towards the users of multiple social media platforms (total n = 329). The analysis compares risk perceptions of using the social media platforms Facebook (n = 288), Twitter (n = 134), Reddit (n = 189) and Snapchat (n = 267). Furthermore, the paper analyses the differences between the sexes and between the digital natives and non-natives. Our sample also includes sufferers of ID theft (n = 50). We analyse how account compromise occurs and how suffering ID theft changes behaviour and perception. The results show significant discrepancies in the risk perception among the social media platform users across the examined indicators, but also explicit variations on how this affects the associated usage patterns. Based on the results, we propose a generic risk ranking of social media platforms, activities, sharing and a threat model for SoMe users. The results show the lack of a unified perception of risk on social media, indicating the need for targeted security awareness enhancement mechanisms focusing on this topic.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2_suppl) ◽  
pp. 69S-80S ◽  
Author(s):  
Mesfin A. Bekalu ◽  
Rachel F. McCloud ◽  
K. Viswanath

Most studies addressing social media use as a normal social behavior with positive or negative effects on health-related outcomes have conceptualized and measured social media use and its effects in terms of dose–effect relations. These studies focus on measuring frequency and duration of use, and have seldom considered users’ emotional connections to social media use and the effects associated with such connections. By using a scale with two dimensions capturing users’ integration of social media use into their social routines and their emotional connection to the sites’ use, the present study has brought preliminary evidence that may help map where social media use, as a normal social behavior, may be considered beneficial or harmful. Data from a nationally representative sample ( n = 1,027) of American adults showed that while routine use is associated with positive health outcomes, emotional connection to social media use is associated with negative health outcomes. These associations have been consistent across three health-related outcomes: social well-being, positive mental health, and self-rated health. The data also showed that the strength of the positive and negative associations of routine use and emotional connection with the health outcomes varies across socioeconomic and racial/ethnic population subgroups. Our findings suggest that the link between social media use and health may not only be captured by and explained in terms of conventional dose–effect approaches but may also require a more sophisticated conceptualization and measurement of the social media use behavior.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-405
Author(s):  
Jeff Corntassel ◽  
Robynne Edgar ◽  
Renée Monchalin ◽  
Carey Newman

For Indigenous Nations on Turtle Island (Canada and the USA), the onset of COVID-19 has exacerbated food insecurity and adverse health outcomes. This situation report examines ways that Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island have met the challenges of the pandemic in their communities and their daily practices of community resurgence through social media. Drawing on the lived experiences of four Indigenous land-based practitioners, we found that social media can offer new forms of connection for Indigenous peoples relating to our foods, lands, waterways, languages, and our living histories.


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