Social Media and Healthcare

Recent emergency authorization and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines by regulatory bodies has generated global attention.

As the most popular video-sharing platform globally, YouTube is a potent medium for the dissemination of key public health information.

Understanding the nature of available content regarding COVID-19 vaccination on this widely used platform is of substantial public health interest.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and quality of information on COVID-19 vaccination in YouTube videos.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the phrases “coronavirus vaccine” and “COVID-19 vaccine” were searched on the UK version of YouTube on December 10, 2020. The 200 most viewed videos of each search were extracted and screened for relevance and English language. Video content and characteristics were extracted and independently rated against Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct and DISCERN quality criteria for consumer health information by 2 authors.

Results: 48 videos, with a combined total view count of 30,100,561, were included in the analysis. Topics addressed comprised the following: vaccine science (n=18, 58%), vaccine trials (n=28, 58%), side effects (n=23, 48%), efficacy (n=17, 35%), and manufacturing (n=8, 17%). Ten (21%) videos encouraged continued public health measures. Only 2 (4.2%) videos made nonfactual claims. The content of 47 (98%) videos was scored to have low (n=27, 56%) or moderate (n=20, 42%) adherence to Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct principles. Median overall DISCERN score per channel type ranged from 40.3 (IQR 34.8-47.0) to 64.3 (IQR 58.5-66.3). Educational channels produced by both medical and nonmedical professionals achieved significantly higher DISCERN scores than those of other categories. The highest median DISCERN scores were achieved by educational videos produced by medical professionals (64.3, IQR 58.5-66.3) and the lowest median scores by independent users (18, IQR 18-20).

Conclusions: The overall quality and reliability of information on COVID-19 vaccines on YouTube remains poor.

Videos produced by educational channels, especially by medical professionals, were higher in quality and reliability than those produced by other sources, including health-related organizations.

Collaboration between health-related organizations and established medical and educational YouTube content producers provides an opportunity for the dissemination of high-quality information on COVID-19 vaccination.

Such collaboration holds potential as a rapidly implementable public health intervention aiming to engage a wide audience and increase public vaccination awareness and knowledge.

Social media is a popular source of information about health, including COVID-19 and testing information. One of the most popular communication channels used by adolescents and young adults who search for health information is TikTok—an emerging social media platform.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe TikTok videos related to COVID-19 testing.

Methods: The hashtag #covidtesting was searched, and the first 100 videos were included in the study sample. At the time the sample was drawn, these 100 videos garnered more than 50% of the views for all videos cataloged under the hashtag #covidtesting.

The content characteristics that were coded included mentions, displays, or suggestions of anxiety, COVID-19 symptoms, quarantine, types of tests, results of test, and disgust/unpleasantness. Additional data that were coded included the number and percentage of views, likes, and comments and the use of music, dance, and humor.

Results: The 100 videos garnered more than 103 million views; 111,000 comments; and over 12.8 million likes. Even though only 44 videos mentioned or suggested disgust/unpleasantness and 44 mentioned or suggested anxiety, those that portrayed tests as disgusting/unpleasant garnered over 70% of the total cumulative number of views (73,479,400/103,071,900, 71.29%) and likes (9,354,691/12,872,505, 72.67%), and those that mentioned or suggested anxiety attracted about 60% of the total cumulative number of views (61,423,500/103,071,900, 59.59%) and more than 8 million likes (8,339,598/12,872,505, 64.79%). Independent one-tailed t tests (α=.05) revealed that videos that mentioned or suggested that COVID-19 testing was disgusting/unpleasant were associated with receiving a higher number of views and likes.

Conclusions: Our finding of an association between TikTok videos that mentioned or suggested that COVID-19 tests were disgusting/unpleasant and these videos’ propensity to garner views and likes is of concern. There is a need for public health agencies to recognize and address connotations of COVID-19 testing on social media.

read the study report at https://publichealth.jmir.org/2021/6/e29528/

It’s time for healthcare organizations to make bigger investments in mobile patient engagement.

The past year’s pandemic struck a painful blow to health organizations’ pre-COVID patient engagement efforts. There are now fewer patient visits amidst coronavirus fears and stay-at-home orders.

People are simply not going into clinics to address non-COVID medical needs. The result is more serious health issues developing, such as cancers being found at later stages and chronic conditions advancing beyond easy treatment options.

As patient engagement strategies ramp up, mobile communication channels are becoming more attractive for reaching those living in geographically isolated areas, far from their medical providers.

While video visits have replaced many non-urgent in-person visits, those in rural areas struggle to use even telemedicine options due to lack of access or unreliable broadband connectivity. The travel is too far and the technology is not part of their daily lives making healthcare completely out of reach. 

Because most people own a cell phone, mobile is an ideal way to communicate and elicit collaboration for health.

Healthcare systems that leverage mobile channels are finding this platform a powerful way to serve patients.

Text (SMS) is an ideal channel for reaching underserved communities, as one does not need a smartphone or broadband to send or receive SMS messages.

SMS also provides a quick and easy way for patients to send information back to their doctors about side effects related to the vaccines. Moving beyond one-way communication with SMS gives patients a way to ask questions or relay information on their current health status.

To take things beyond basic SMS, healthcare providers can consider fleshing out a full mobile communications strategy to deliver tailored analytics. With real-time data and services, staff work-flow can be improved and resources can be allocated more efficiently, also lowering costs. It’s the next step up from SMS but patients with chronic conditions who have mobile access to medical portals showed improved self-management and an increase in regular contact with their care team. 

read the entire piece at https://hitconsultant.net/2021/04/29/mobile-channels-improve-patient-engagement-outcomes/#.YIt7UOvhUf0