11 Social Media and Healthcare
LEARNING GOALS
This chapter will help you understand:
- How are social media used in healthcare practices?
- What are the trends of searching health information through social media?
- What social support do patients obtain in interacting with online peers?
- Why can health information function like a medical intervention?
KEY CONCEPTS
Social support
Emotional support
Health information support
Peer support
THEORY HIGHLIGHTS
Health Behavior Model and Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication Model
Overview
People are increasingly seeking online health information by using social media, healthcare websites, and search engines, especially when they have medical concerns or even before and after seeing a doctor. Among the online sources of health information, social media play a pivotal role in receiving and sharing health information with others on a daily basis. Most people have several social media apps in their smartphones and they carry them wherever they go. Checking social media information has become the most frequent activity on a typical smartphone, making the content conveniently available anywhere and any time. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that one of the most effective ways to deliver health information is circulating it through various social media venues.
On the other hand, the health information that people obtain through social media was found to help reduce health concerns and enhance symptom management, leading to improved health ...
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