Social Media and Teens: A Needs Assessment Exploring the Potential Role of Social Media in Promoting Health (original) (raw)
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JMIR Formative Research
Background: Consumption of health-and fitness-related social media content is a predominant behavior among teenage girls, which puts them at risk for consuming unreliable health-related information. Objective: This mixed-methods study (qualitative and quantitative) assessed health behavior attitudes and practices as well as social media use among adolescent girls. Additionally, similar practices and behaviors of adults who regularly interact with this population were studied. Methods: Girls aged 12-18 years were recruited to complete a 28-item survey and participate in a 45-to 60-minute focus group. Adults who regularly interact with adolescent girls, including parents, teachers, and healthcare professionals, were recruited from the local community and given a link to provide online consent and complete a survey. Results: A total of 27 adolescent girls participated in one of nine focus groups. Participants included 18 high school (age: mean 16.1 years; SD 1.3 years) and 9 middle school (age: mean 12.4 years; SD 0.7 years) girls. Eleven adults completed the online survey. Adolescents used social media to communicate and connect with friends, rather than as a source of health information. Although adolescents may see health-related content, most do not follow health-related pages or share such pages themselves, and fewer are actively searching for this information. Adolescents tend to trust information from familiar sources, and the participants reported that they do not follow official news accounts. Adults considered modeling and discussing healthy behaviors important and reportedly expected adolescents to see some level of health-related, especially fitness-related, content on social media. Conclusions: Education interventions are warranted for both adolescents and adults with whom adolescent girls regularly interact, in the areas of sedentary behavior to guide them to access reliable online health-related information and be judicious consumers of online health information.
#Gettinghealthy: The perceived influence of social media on young adult health behaviors
Young adults (18–25 years old) spend a majority of their waking hours with technology and young adult- hood is an important developmental time period for establishing lasting health behaviors. Considering the relevance of technology and health during young adulthood the current study explored young adults (N = 34) perceptions of social media’s (e.g., social networking) influence on their health behaviors (i.e., diet and exercise) using a social ecological framework. Data was collected through eight focus groups and four individual interviews. Three themes were identified through phenomenological qualitative analysis. Young adults perceived that technology could be both a barrier and a motivator for exercise. Social media was also credited with expanding food choices through creating access to a variety of recipes, providing a venue for showcasing the food young adults eat or prepare, and distracting young adults from making positive food choices. Participants also reported that it is common to post statuses or pictures relating to exercise practices on social media during young adulthood. Young adults indicated that these posts could be inspirational or misused, depending on the context. Results are discussed in terms of theory and preliminary implications.
Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2022
Background Social media–delivered health promotion has demonstrated limited uptake and effectiveness among young adults. Understanding how young adults interact with existing social media platforms for health might provide insight for future health promotion interventions. Objective The aim of this study is to describe how young adults interact with different social media platforms for health and health information. Methods We used a web-based conversation methodology to collect data from 165 young adults aged 18 to 24 years. Participants participated in an extended conversation with moderators and other participants about health and social media. They were prompted to discuss how they find health information, how they use different social media platforms, and how they evaluate the trustworthiness of information. A thematic qualitative analysis was applied to the data. Results Young adults spent a lot of time scrolling through Facebook newsfeeds, which often resulted in seeing healt...
DIGITAL HEALTH, 2015
ObjectiveAdolescents are known to be high users of social media, and social media is beginning to be used in health care. The primary objective of this review was to determine the current state of play on the use of social media as a health intervention in addressing the health of adolescents.MethodsSix databases were searched: CINAHL, Medline, Scopus, ProQuest, Psych Info and Science Direct, from 2000–2013. The review process followed PRISMA guidelines with quality assessments of the selected articles undertaken.ResultsThree studies used social media as a health intervention in adolescent health. Facebook was the social media of choice. The way this social media tool was incorporated as the intervention varied. None of the social media interventions had a significant or sustained impact on the primary outcomes of the studies reviewed. Measures of social media process were limited and lacked meaning.ConclusionsThe selected papers provided insight into the beginning phase of using so...
Nutrition & Dietetics, 2018
BackgroundObesity is a global health problem. Understanding how to utilise social media (SM) as a platform for intervention and engagement with young adults (YAs) will help the practitioners to harness this media more effectively for obesity prevention.AimCommunicating health (CH) aims to understand the use of SM by YAs, including Aboriginal YAs, and in doing so will improve the effectiveness of SM strategies to motivate, engage and retain YAs in interventions to reduce the risk of obesity, and identify and disseminate effective ways for health professionals to deliver obesity prevention interventions via SM.MethodsThe present study describes the theoretical framework and methodologies for the CH study, which is organised into four interrelated phases, each building on the outcomes of preceding phases. Phase 1 is a mixed methods approach to understand how YAs use SM to navigate their health issues, including healthy eating. Phase 2 utilises co‐creation workshops where YAs and public...
Impact Of Social Media On General Health Of Adolescent
2020
Social media has strong impact on all ages but adolescent are more vulnerable to its effect, as this is the changing phase from childhood to adolescent .To analyze the effect of social media on general health of adolescent the questioner study was designed and by using simple sampling of 100 students were selected from different schools from Karachi Pakistan .By the result we analyzed that social media play a vital impact on health of adolescent. KeywordHealth of Adolescent, Social Media Impact on Health, Social Media and Adolescent.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020
The use of social media in public health education has been increasing due to its ability to remove physical barriers that traditionally impede access to healthcare support and resources. As health promotion becomes more deeply rooted in Internet-based programming, health education specialists are tasked with becoming more competent in computer-mediated contexts that optimize both online and offline consumer health experiences. Generating a better understanding of the benefits and drawbacks to using social media in the field is important, since health education specialists continue to weigh its advantages against potential concerns and barriers to use. Accordingly, this Special Issue aims to explore social media as a translational health promotion tool by bridging principles of health education and health communication that examine (1) the method with which social media users access, negotiate, and create health information that is both actionable and impactful for diverse audiences...
The role of social media in developing young people’s health literacy
2018
In this chapter, the notion of health literacy is explored in the context of adolescents learning about health. Up until fairly recently, the concept of health literacy has been driven mainly by health care models and has specifically targeted adult populations. This chapter uses the case studies (Chapters 2–7) provided to explore an alternative way of discussing and promoting health literacy and in ways that draw on the perspectives of young people and their frequent engagement with social media in a digital age.
2011
The aims of this study are to identify health concerns and behaviors, to understand why some concerns are more worrisome than others, and to learn what information sources are relied on for a young age cohort-7th grade students-in two poor and near-poor school districts. Focus groups-one each of girls and boys-in each of two public school districts were held. Health concerns and their rationale for why some are of greater concern than others are remarkably similar among rural and urban participants, and include illegal drug use, smoking marijuana, smoking cigarettes, HIV/AIDS, drinking liquor, becoming a young parent, being hurt in a fight, cancer, diabetes, and having a bad heart. Five over-arching themes emerged accounting for why certain health issues command their concern, and these were remarkably consistent across groups. These include: (1) desire to avoid dying at a young age, (2) social stigma, (3) choices that have negative legal and health ramifications, (4) choices that eliminate youth activities, and (5) avoiding the "heredity is destiny" syndrome. Findings on used and trusted information sources suggest that online social media (MySpace, Facebook) provide a parasocial experience and should be examined as future components of primary socialization theory (PST). If online social media can overcome some wariness regarding credibility they may become important sources for adolescents seeking health information.