Social Media as Potential Means in Increasing Knowledge on Low Birth Weight Babies (LBWB) among Adolescents : A Cross Sectional Study (Preprint)
BACKGROUND LBWB is birth weight of less than 2500 grams. New born mortality is 50% higher with adolescent mothers. Adolescents who give birth at the age of 15–19 years have a higher risk of neonatal death. Nowadays, adolescents are easily accessed as they use social media in their daily lives. OBJECTIVE This study aims to determine social media as potential means in increasing knowledge on LBWB among adolescents. METHODS This study was cross sectional with total respondent was 286 adolescents aged 16–18 from 2 schools (urban and rural). Chi square and Logistic Regression analysis were used in this study. RESULTS The research show that 108 (75.5%) of respondents in urban and 61 (42.7%) in rural area respondents have access social media. Mostly adolescent in urban use Instagram while in rural use Facebook to seek out LBWB knowledge. Even though, 92.7% of adolescents had heard the term premature baby, only 24.5% of respondents knew what is the normal range gestational age. There is a significant relationship between social media and knowledge of LBW (p-0.01). Based on multivariate analysis, adolescents who have high access to social media have a 3.047 times higher of having high knowledge of LBWB in comparison to those who have low access. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that social media has potential means in order to increase LBWB knowledge among adolescent. Mostly adolescent in urban use Instagram while in rural use Facebook.