Social media and mobile applications in chronic disease prevention and management (original) (raw)
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Objectives: This paper explores the range of self-tracking devices and social media platforms used by the self-tracking community, and examines the implications of widespread adoption of these tools for scientific progress in health informatics. Methods: A literature review was performed to investigate the use of social media and self-tracking technologies in the health sector. An environmental scan identified a range of products and services which were used to exemplify three levels of self-tracking: self-experimentation, social sharing of data and patient controlled electronic health records.
Social Media, Mobile Devices and Sensors: Categorizing New Techniques for Health Communication
The 5th International Conference on Sensing Technology, Palmerston North, New Zealand (ICST 2011), 2011
While the advent of social media and online social networking is still relatively new, a rapid penetration of these technologies is being seen and their impact in relation to health communications is more recently also being considered. In relation to health in particular, these social media communications systems can also be considered to gain extended capabilities and impact when used atop and interacting with mobile devices and sensors. In this paper we introduce a framework to categorize and analyze the emerging types of health-related social media interactions and communications and consider how the techniques fit within this broader framework for healthcare applications of social media.
2020
UNSTRUCTURED Social media has been widely used in the health context. Previous reviews have summarized social media usage in health interventions, health campaigns, medical education, and disease outbreak surveillance. However, these reviews were mostly from the perspective of health organizations. In recent years, there has not been much effort in comprehensively reviewing how social media are used by various types of users in various ways for health promotion. The current review searched literature published after 2006 and summarized social media usages for health promotion identified in the literature. The review proposed a framework to categorize these usages identified in terms of user types, content types, and level of impact. New trends and current gaps in social media usage for health promotion were also discussed.
Objective: We evaluated the feasibility of a 10-week program combining a smartphone application and theoretically-based, social media-delivered health education intervention to improve college students' health behaviors and outcomes. Participants: Forty-four college students (32 female; X ̅ age ¼21.6 years) in 2015-2016. Methods: Participants were randomized into one of two groups: (1) experimental: used MapMyFitness smartphone application to log and track physical activity (PA) and participated in a Social Cognitive Theory-based, Facebook-delivered health education intervention; (2) comparison: only included in a separate, but content-identical, Facebook intervention. Our primary outcomes pertained to intervention feasibility while our secondary outcomes reflected health behaviors and outcomes. Results: Intervention interest was high, with retention 95.5%. Experimental participants used MapMyFitness 1.71x/week, with both groups implementing the Facebook-delivered health education tips 1-3x/week. We observed a modest sedentary behavior reduction in the experimental group (À29.2-minutes/day). Additionally, both groups demonstrated slight reductions in weight (experimental:À1.2 kg/comparison:À0.6 kg) and body fat percentage (both groups:À0.8%-decrease). Increased PA-related social support and decreased barriers were observed. Conclusions: A low-burden and well-integrated social mediabased intervention is feasible and of interest to college students, possibly improving select health behaviors and outcomes. PA-oriented smartphone application offered limited additional benefit.
Clinical and Translational Science
Electronic communication is becoming increasingly popular worldwide, as evidenced by its widespread and rapidly growing use. In medicine, however, it remains a novel approach to reach out to patients. Yet, they have the potential for further improving current health care. Electronic platforms could support therapy adherence and communication between physicians and patients. The power of social media as well as other electronic devices can improve adherence as evidenced by the development of the app bant. Additionally, systemic analysis of social media content by Screenome can identify health events not always captured by regular health care. By better identifying these healthcare events we can improve our current healthcare system as we will be able to better tailor to the patients' needs. All these techniques are a valuable component of modern health care and will help us into the future of increasingly digital health care.
Sharing of health information which is related to health becomes easier with the introduction of new technologies such as Web 2.0 social media networks. Social media networks represent a rather innovative way of online information and knowledge repositories. On the other hand, many non-communicable diseases are caused by unhealthy urban lifestyle. Hence, the practice of the healthy lifestyle behaviors should be promoted for sustainability. Besides, in order to cut down the chronic diseases, workplace is one of the key channels for the delivery of interventions among adult populations. Latest development in information and communication technologies (ICT) has given positive influences in health communication. The new technology is believed to be more engaged because it involves visual, audio and animation simultaneously, thus it is more reachable and collaborative. This paper reviews strategies to manage health promotion. Nevertheless, improvement is still needed to achieve successful health promotion. This paper also provides insights of issues and poses future topics of health promotion to consider.