Internet and social media usage for health related information among diabetes patients in Saudi Arabia (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emtinan Alharbi ◽  
Ahdab Alreheli ◽  
Maryam Almubarak ◽  
Rami Elshatarat ◽  
Omar Al Nozha

BACKGROUND Health-related information (H.I.) can now be accessed more easily than ever using the web and social media. OBJECTIVE Identify H.I. seeking behavior on the internet and social media among DM patient in Kingdom Saudi Arabia (KSA). METHODS This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. A convenience sampling method was used to recruit 406 patients with DM. A structured Arabic questionnaire was used to collect the data. RESULTS A total of 211 of the participants used the internet and/or social media to seek H.I. Most of the participants (44.4%) were using internet for the last 6 to 10 years. The majority of the participants (60%) rated their skills as a “very good”, used YouTube (72.7%) and Twitter (55.2%) when seeking H.I., and considered YouTube (76.4%) and Twitter (64.8%) as “excellent” or “very good” resources to seek online H.I. CONCLUSIONS Older age and low educated people are less likely to seek online H.I. about DM management. The majority of the participants believed that their health behaviors are positively influenced after online seeking for H.I.

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. e050557
Author(s):  
Li Ming Wen ◽  
Huilan Xu ◽  
Danielle Jawad ◽  
Limin Buchanan ◽  
Chris Rissel ◽  
...  

ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate perceived impacts, ways of communication with professionals and information sources related to COVID-19, and explore whether these impacts or information sources were associated with ethnicity that is, language spoken at home.DesignA cross-sectional study.SettingSydney, Australia during the period from March to October 2020.ParticipantsMothers of young children participating in an existing trial.Outcome measuresMothers were asked to respond to a set of survey questions related to COVID-19 via telephone. The questions included a mental health scale, and how they communicated with health professionals and their information sources related to COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic.ResultsOf 537 mothers who completed the survey (81% response rate), 45% reported they spoke a language other than English at home. Overall, 136 (26%) reported experiencing mental distress. 234 (44%) reported that COVID-19 affected the way they receive and communicate health-related information with health professionals, especially for those from non-English speaking backgrounds with an adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.58 (95% CI 1.10 to 2.27). They were less likely to use a face-to-face service (AOR 0.55, 95% CI 0.37 to 0.80) and more likely to use social media (AOR 2.11, 95% CI 1.40 to 3.17) for health-related information. Regarding sources of COVID-19-related information, mothers from non-English-speaking backgrounds were more likely to rely on family members (AOR 1.49, 95% CI 1.01 to 2.19) and social media (AOR 3.34, 95% CI 2.05 to 5.43).ConclusionsCOVID-19 has significantly impacted mothers with young children in regard to their mental health, means of communication with health professionals and sources of health information. Mothers from non-English-speaking communities were less likely to use a face-to-face service, and more likely to seek information from family members and social media. Appropriate health support for non-English-speaking community needs to take these factors into account.Trial registration numberANZCTR:12618001571268.they


2021 ◽  
Vol 05 (02) ◽  
pp. 72-80
Author(s):  
Hoang Thuy Linh Nguyen ◽  
◽  
Xuan Minh Tri Tran ◽  
Thi Mien Ha Nguyen ◽  
Dinh Tuyen Hoang ◽  
...  

Objective: This study aims to describe the COVID-19 related information searching behaviors and the relationship between those behaviors and the satisfaction with the COVID-19 related information searched on the Internet among university students during first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted by a web-based survey from April 25, 2020 to May 9, 2020. Convenient sample with the method of snowball sampling was applied, 1003 students were obtained totally. Multivariable logistic regression model was used to identify the associations between those behaviors and the satisfaction with the COVID-19 related information searched on the Internet. Results: Search engines were the most popular sources used for online COVID-19 information seeking (95.3%), followed by Social media (92.4%) and News portals (91.6%). About 90% of participants searched the information related to the current spread of the coronavirus, followed by symptoms of the COVID-19 (81.8%) and individual measures to protect against infection (81.9%). Vietnamese remains the main language of the sources with 70.3% of participants used. There’s 45.8% of participant satisfied about the COVID-19 related information. The group of participants who sought information about prevention was 0.47 times less dissatisfied than the group that did not search. Conclusion: There are significant associations between searching topics related to prevention and the COVID-19 related information satisfaction searched on the Internet. These results highlight the need for providing efficient information related to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as seriously consider focusing more on social media to better bring official information to the public. Keywords: COVID-19, information searching behaviors, university students, satisfaction


2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. e204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aida Bianco ◽  
Rossella Zucco ◽  
Carmelo Giuseppe A Nobile ◽  
Claudia Pileggi ◽  
Maria Pavia

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1665-1669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey H. Basch ◽  
Danna Ethan ◽  
Sarah A. MacLean ◽  
Joseph Fera ◽  
Phillip Garcia ◽  
...  

Reading and understanding health information, both components of health literacy, can influence patient decisions related to disease management. Older adults, the population of males at greatest risk for prostate cancer, may have compromised capacity to understand and use health information. The purpose of this study was to determine the readability of prostate cancer materials on the Internet using five recommended readability tests. Using a cleared Internet browser, a search was conducted for “prostate cancer.” The URLs of the first 100 websites in English were recorded to create the sample. The readability scores for each website were determined using an online, recommended service. This service generates five commonly recommended readability tests. All five tests revealed that the majority of websites had difficult readability. There were no significant differences identified between websites with .org, .gov, or .edu extension versus those with .com, .net, or other extension. It is apparent that the Internet is used often as a resource for health-related information. This study demonstrates that the large majority of information available on the Internet about prostate cancer will not be readable for many individuals.


Author(s):  
Habibolah Khazaie ◽  
Javad Yoosefi Lebni ◽  
Jaffar Abbas ◽  
Behzad Mahaki ◽  
Fakhreddin Chaboksavar ◽  
...  

Background In recent years, Internet and social media technology use have emerged as an integral tool of human society, and the evolution of technological integration, cyberspace, and web-technology has become a common practice in educational institutions. Internet usage among students has played an indispensable role in learning behavior; however, the excessive usage of the internet and social media leads to internet addiction. This original study has performed a focalized scrutiny on revealing relationships between internet addiction and associated factors among the students of medicine, dentistry, and pharmaceutical departments. Methods This descriptive and analytical study recruited medical students from the Self-governing Education Incubator of Kermanshah. This survey distributed questionnaires among the respondents’ three departments, and this statistical data reported on 420 valid responses of the respondents. They represent first and second-semester medical students of the academic year 2017–2018. The study selected medical students by applying Cochran's Sample Size Formula through Stratified Random Sampling and cross-sectional research design. The survey has utilized a demographic questionnaire of Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT) for the data collection. The study analyzed received data by using SPSS version 23 and performed the descriptive statistics, and analytical statistics (t-test and ANOVA). Results The results of the present study established that the majority of subjects were female students (53.3%), and the average age was 23.84 ± 2.14, including the students of all departments. Besides, findings specified that the overall mean and standard deviation scores were 3.34 and ±0.88. Internet addiction revealed mean and the standard deviation score measured for all students 3.29 ± 0.73, 3.17 ± 0.92, and 3.57 ± 0.64 correspondingly. The survey results illustrated that medical students’ internet addiction substantially correlated with demographic variables, such as age, marital status, the field of study, academic term, significant time of consuming the internet, the key reason of utilizing the internet, and daily usage of the internet ( p < .05). Conclusion The results of the study specified that 25% of medical students showed internet addiction. The students are increasingly using the internet, and it has penetrated among students. The design and implementation of adequate educational programs and the application of internet-based efficiency interventions are essential for both knowledge acquisition and medical students’ healthy behavior.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Syed Meraj Ahmed ◽  
Faisal Alhumaidi Alruways ◽  
Thamer Fahad Alsallum ◽  
Meshal Munahi Almutairi ◽  
Abdullah Saif Al-Subhi ◽  
...  

<span lang="EN-US">Use of social media for patient care is the new frontier in the healthcare indus-try. Sharing of information between the clinicians and their patients is now so much easier. In slowly gaining a foothold worldwide it needs a healthy push to make it universally accepta-ble. Study the knowledge, attitude, and practices of healthcare providers on the usage of social media in their clinical practice.</span><span lang="EN-US">A baseline cross – sectional study was conducted among 200 healthcare professionals from March 2015 to September 2015 on their knowledge, attitude, and practices in the use of social media for patient care in Majmaah, Saudi Arabia. A close ended self – administered validated questionnaire was used to gather data which was analyzed by using the SPSS ver. 21.0 software. 55.3% participants used social media for both professional and personal reasons. Some (25.3%) specified using it for patient care while a significant majority (52.9%) opined that it can be successfully used for patient interaction. Nearly 55% agreed that social media should not be banned due to its benefits as an efficient tool for patient communication. </span><span>S</span><span lang="EN-US">ocial media use for pa-tient doctor interaction should be encouraged to improve patient care through effective com-munication.</span>


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