Social media in health communication: A literature review of information quality. 2023

Eric Afful-Dadzie, and Anthony Afful-Dadzie, and Sulemana Bankuoru Egala
293415University of Ghana Business School, Ghana.

Social media is used in health communication by individuals, health professionals, disease centres and other health regulatory bodies. However, varying degrees of information quality are churned out daily on social media. This review is concerned with the quality of Social Media Health Information (SMHI). The review sought to understand how SMHI quality issues have been framed and addressed in the literature. Health topics, users and social media platforms that have raised health information quality concerns are reviewed. The review also looked at the suitability of existing criteria and instruments used in evaluating SMHI and identified gaps for future research. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and the forward chaining strategy were used in the document search. Data were sourced according to inclusion criteria from five academic databases, namely Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, PubMed and MEDLINE. A total of 93 articles published between 2000 and 2019 were used in the review. The review revealed a worrying trend of health content and communication on social media, especially of cancer, dental care and diabetes information on YouTube. The review further discovered that the Journal of the American Medical Association, the DISCERN and the Health on the Net Foundation, which were designed before the advent of social media, continue to be used as quality evaluation instruments for SMHI, even though technical and user characteristics of social media differ from traditional portals such as websites. The study synthesises varied opinions on SMHI quality in the literature and recommends that future research proposes quality evaluation criteria and instruments specifically for SMHI.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D006282 Health Personnel Men and women working in the provision of health services, whether as individual practitioners or employees of health institutions and programs, whether or not professionally trained, and whether or not subject to public regulation. (From A Discursive Dictionary of Health Care, 1976) Health Care Professionals,Health Care Providers,Healthcare Providers,Healthcare Workers,Health Care Professional,Health Care Provider,Healthcare Provider,Healthcare Worker,Personnel, Health,Professional, Health Care,Provider, Health Care,Provider, Healthcare
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D014481 United States A country in NORTH AMERICA between CANADA and MEXICO.
D058015 Health Communication The transfer of information from experts in the medical and public health fields to patients and the public. The study and use of communication strategies to inform and influence individual and community decisions that enhance health. Communication, Health,Communications, Health,Health Communications
D061108 Social Media Platforms that provide the ability and tools to create and publish information accessed via the INTERNET. Generally these platforms have three characteristics with content user generated, high degree of interaction between creator and viewer, and easily integrated with other sites. Folksonomy,Mobile Social Media,Mobile Social Networks,Social Media Messaging,Social Tagging,Social Medium,Twitter Messaging,Web 2.0,Folksonomies,Media Messaging, Social,Media, Social,Messaging, Social Media,Messaging, Twitter,Mobile Social Medias,Mobile Social Network,Social Media Messagings,Social Media, Mobile,Social Network, Mobile,Social Taggings,Tagging, Social,Web 2.0s

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