Exploring drivers for public engagement in social media communication with medical social influencers in China

Health-Related Communication of Social Media Influencers: A Scoping Review

Social media influencers (SMIs) are an essential part of today's digital media landscape and have the ability to significantly impact the health-related attitudes and behavior of their audiences. Despite an increasing number of studies, research has produced mixed results, and a comprehensive overview of the main findings is lacking. Therefore, the goal of this scoping review was to comprehensively map the literature focusing on SMIs and their health-related communication. Specifically, we analyzed the most frequently studied health topics and social media platforms, the methodological characteristics of the studies, as well as the communication techniques employed by SMIs, and the potential positive and negative effects of their communication on their audience. Additionally, we examined the major research gaps in this area. Altogether, we analyzed n = 116 empirical papers. The results reveal a wide range of different outcomes influenced by SMIs, including both positive and negative changes in health-related attitudes and behavioral intentions among their followers. Furthermore, our findings highlight the need for future research to prioritize experimental and longitudinal studies, investigate actual behavioral outcomes resulting from influencer content exposure, and closely examine the potential negative effects of SMIs' health-related communication. More attention needs to be paid to health-related misinformation disseminated by SMIs. Lastly, this study identified several highly relevant health topics and social media platforms that should be the focus of future research.

A Bibliometric Review of Constituents, Themes, and Trends in Online Medical Consultation Research

As an emerging form of health care with accelerated growth in recent years, online medical consultation (OMC) has received extensive attention worldwide. Although the number of studies on OMC has increased substantially, few provide a comprehensive and up-to-date review of OMC's research constituents, themes, and trends. This study, therefore, extracted 1,801 OMC-related articles published in English from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database during the past 30 years and employed a bibliometric analysis of WoS and CiteSpace to examine major constituents' distribution, collaboration relationships, themes, and trends. The results indicate that the United States, England, and China contributed the most to the proliferation of OMC studies. The United States had the greatest academic influence and the most collaborative connections, while China demonstrated the sharpest increase and most active development in recent years. However, there is a lack of substantial and close collaboration between researchers worldwide. The main themes of OMC research were Internet hospitals, COVID-19, mixed methods, online health community, and information technology. Researchers have recently shifted their attention to social media, management, efficacy, word of mouth, mental health, and anxiety. This review paper provides researchers and practitioners with a holistic and clear understanding of the features and trends of OMC research. It also identifies potential areas for future OMC research and sheds light on OMC practices.

Analysis of Social Media Perceptions Among Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Applicants and Social Media Use by Residency Programs During the 2020 to 2021 Cycle

Owing to the coronavirus 2019 pandemic limiting both applicants and residency programs in their ability to connect in-person, it is likely that a shift toward virtual connections was made. We aimed to query applicants regarding their perspectives of orthopaedic residency program social media use. Furthermore, we aimed to quantify the number of orthopaedic surgery residency programs with active social media accounts.

Social media use to improve communication on children and adolescent's health: the role of the Italian Paediatric Society influencers

Background

Fake news on children’s and adolescent health are spreading. Internet availability and decreasing costs of media devices are contributing to an easy access to technology by families. Public health organizations are working to contrast misinformation and promote scientific communication. In this context, a new form of communication is emerging social media influencers. Aim of this study is to evaluate the role of paediatric influencers (PI) in communicating information about children and adolescents’ health.

Materials and methods

A group of PI was enrolled from December 2019 to January 2020 by a scientific commission nominated by the Italian Paediatric Society (SIP). PI were asked to share Facebook messages from the official page of the SIP to their own network. Social media tools have been evaluated across 12 months, from July 28, 2019, to July 11, 2020. For the purposes of clarity, we schematically divided the study period as follows: the period of PIs activity (January 6, 2020, to July 11, 2020) and the period when PIs were not yet active (July 28, 2019, to January 4, 2020). Information on Facebook page (lifetime total likes, daily new likes, daily page engaged, daily total reach) and on published post (lifetime post total reach, lifetime post organic reach, lifetime engaged users) were evaluated.

Results

A significant increase in Facebook daily new likes, page engagement and total reach, as well as in lifetime post total and organic reach was evidenced. As for PI, they reported a positive experience in most cases.

Discussion

In the digital era, communication strategies are becoming more important, so that the scientific community has to be actively involved in social media communication. Our pilot study demonstrated that the recruitment of paediatric influencers has increased communication and interaction of the SIP Facebook page.

Conclusion

Our study shows the potential role of influencers: spreading health messages via PI seems to be a successful strategy to promote correct communication about children’s and adolescents’ health.