Peer Review Articles on the Pros and Cons of Adolescent Using Social Media
Review
Abstract
Background: Social media has emerged as a potentially powerful medium for communication with adolescents and immature adults around their health choices.
Objective: The goal of this systematic review is to place research on the use of social media for interacting with adolescents and young adults in order to achieve positive health outcomes.
Methods: A MEDLINE/PubMed electronic database search was performed betwixt Jan 1, 2002 and October i, 2013, using terms to identify peer-reviewed research in which social media and other Web two.0 technologies were an of import feature. Nosotros used a systematic approach to retrieve papers and extract relevant information.
Results: We identified 288 studies involving social media, of which 87 met criteria for inclusion; 75 studies were purely observational and 12 were interventional. The ways in which social media was leveraged past these studies included (i) observing adolescent and immature adult behavior (n=77), (2) providing health information (north=thirteen), (3) engaging the adolescent and young adult community (northward=17), and (4) recruiting enquiry participants (n=23). Common health topics addressed included loftier-risk sexual behaviors (n=23), alcohol, tobacco, and other drug apply (n=19), Internet safe (n=8), mental health issues (n=xviii), medical conditions (n=11), or other specified issues (north=12). Several studies used more than one social media platform and addressed more than ane health-related topic.
Conclusions: Social media technologies offer an heady new means for engaging and communicating with adolescents and young adults; it has been successfully used to engage this age group, place behaviors, and provide appropriate intervention and teaching. Nevertheless, the majority of studies to date take been preliminary and limited in their methodologies, and mostly center around evaluating how adolescents and immature adults utilize social media and the resulting implications on their wellness. Although these explorations are essential, further exploration and development of these strategies into edifice effective interventions is necessary.
doi:10.2196/jmir.3692
Keywords
Introduction
Health care providers (HCPs) face several of import challenges in caring for the adolescent and immature adult population. Developmentally, adolescents and young adults are in the midst of a stage in life during which they are striving to constitute a sense of independence and self-identity, while besides aiming to "fit in" and proceeds credence from their peers []. It is a disquisitional time when wellness-risk behaviors (eg, substance use and high-risk sexual behaviors) are ofttimes initiated [,]. Information technology is as well a fourth dimension of life transitions, such as moving away from parental control and establishing independent relationships with HCPs. Adolescents and immature adults take access to more health information than in the past and possess the capacity to have an active role in tasks such every bit self-monitoring their health and adhering to medications []. However, the interplay between developmental factors and the overall transience of this population can contribute to a lack of communication between these young individuals and their HCPs; immature people may want to discuss issues around their health with HCPs, but oft practise not [].
On the other hand, adolescents and young adults are the about well-represented population online, with over 95% accessing the Internet daily [,]. Young people are as well the primeval adopters and heaviest users of the newest Net communication technologies such as social media, which in recent years has become increasingly accessible as a outcome of the widespread adoption of mobile and wireless Internet access. In fact, 81% written report that they apply social media and 67% report using it at least once a day []. Furthermore, as active social media users, 88% report sending instant messages, 87% have commented on a friend's postal service, 86% take posted a condition update, and 80% accept posted a photo or video online []. Social media, by its nature of open sharing, collaboration, and exchange of user-generated content, has been shown to exist useful in the creation and maintenance of social networks that are important in the spread of health behaviors [-]. Thus, to positively affect the care of young people, HCPs showtime need to recognize and understand the virtual mural where they reside to ensure the validity and reliability of data available, and improve their knowledge and awareness of patients' health behaviors in order to engage this traditionally difficult-to-reach and often high-risk population.
A number of review articles have previously examined the use of social media or social networking sites (SNS) (these terms will be used interchangeably) for health-related research involving the adolescent and young adult population, but each is very focused on defined topic areas, such as specific medical conditions [], mental health [], other health-chance behaviors [,], and the effectiveness of SNS for health research []. To our knowledge, no review articles to date have focused on the utilise of social media as they relate to adolescent and young adult health care. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review is to identify research on the utilize of social media for interacting with adolescents and immature adults to accomplish positive wellness outcomes.
Methods
This study was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines []. To determine the ways in which social media has been used to interact with adolescents and young adults, we used a systematic approach to call back relevant papers from the literature. Articles were selected for this review using the following pre-defined option criteria (): (1) involved original research, (2) published in peer-reviewed journals, (three) specified the utilize of SNS, (4) target population was exclusive to adolescents and/or young adults betwixt the ages of 11-25 years, and (v) written in English language. Within MEDLINE / the PubMed electronic database, nosotros performed a search betwixt January 1, 2002 and October 1, 2013. We included keywords (ie, social networking website, Spider web ii.0, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace), which were selected based on current definitions of social media at the time of this systematic review []. We and so refined our search using the keyword "health", too as keywords synonymous with the adolescent and immature adult population (ie, teen, loftier schoolhouse student, college student). In addition, we conducted a transmission search of articles published within the Journal of Medical Net Inquiry (JMIR) to retrieve relevant papers. The resulting abstracts were critically reviewed for relevance. We chose to include individuals up to historic period 25 years in this review for a number of reasons, including the paucity of studies aimed at adolescents under historic period 18 years and the anticipated similarities in the use of social media, medical implications, and opportunities for intervention.
All full-text articles that met the inclusion criteria were downloaded from PubMed and critically reviewed by 2 separate researchers (LY, SZ). A checklist for data extraction from the studies was created (). The purpose of the study, blazon of social media used, participants and sample size, methodology, and significant findings were summarized. All studies were categorized by methodology (interventional vs observational). Studies were also categorized past the purpose for which social media was employed. These categories were adapted from previously published categorization of uses of social media for health communication [] and included (1) studies that observed health behaviors past performing content analysis of SNS, assessing SNS use by interview or survey or eliciting reaction to a post on SNS, (2) studies that provided health information, (3) studies that engaged the customs, either by facilitating advice with HCPs or creating an online community, and (four) studies that used social media as a ways of recruiting participants for clinical enquiry.
Data was extracted independently by the two reviewers and compared. Any discrepancies regarding data categorization were reviewed past a third author (CS) and discussed every bit a group, later which a consensus was reached and a last database was compiled. Every bit our systematic review focused on the means in which social media were used, rather than outcomes of its use, further meta-assay was not performed.
| Criteria | |
| Inclusion criteria | Original research |
| | Published in peer-reviewed journals |
| | Involves social media / SNS |
| | Study population: 11-25 years of age |
| | Written in English language |
| Exclusion criteria | Not original inquiry: reviews, editorials, and commentaries |
| | Methodology or technical papers |
| | Target population not adolescents or young adults |
| | Non focused on, or involving, online SNS |
| Information extraction category | Details |
| Authors | |
| Championship | |
| Journal | |
| Year | |
| Purpose | |
| Type of social media | MySpace |
| | |
| | YouTube |
| | Mixed social networking sites |
| | Other |
| Target population | |
| Sample size | |
| Health issues assessed | Sexual behaviors, sexually transmitted infections |
| | Alcohol, drugs, or tobacco |
| | Cyberbullying or sexual predators |
| | Mental health issues |
| | Medical diseases |
| | Other |
| Outcomes assessed | |
| Limitations listed in study | |
| Study results | |
| Blazon of written report | Observational |
| | Interventional |
| Utilize of social media | Assess or view social media sites |
| | Assess social media use via survey or interview |
| | Elicit reaction to postings on social media |
| | Provide wellness information or change behaviors via social media sites |
| | Recruitment through social media |
| | Improve advice with health care provider via social media |
| | Create community within social media |
Results
We initially identified 3136 studies involving social media; 1614 of these studies were categorized as applying to health medical subject heading (MeSH) terminology and, of these, 288 involved the adolescents and young adult population. Of these studies, 201 were excluded because they were not original research articles, were non specific to adolescents and immature adults (ie, included ages outside of those established in our inclusion criteria of 11-25 years one-time), or did non involve social media (). The excluded studies are listed in . The PRISMA flow diagram is shown in .
Although our search began effectually the popularization of Web 2.0 in January 2002, only two studies were published earlier 2006 [,] and the largest number of original inquiry studies were identified as beingness published in 2012 (northward=29) ().
Of the 87 studies that were included in our systematic review, 86% (75/87) were observational and 14% (12/87) were interventional. There were four primary means in which social media were used within these studies: (1) observing boyish and immature adult health behaviors (n=77), (2) providing health information (northward=xiii), (3) engaging the adolescents and immature developed customs (northward=17), and (iv) recruiting report participants (n=22). The written report of adolescent and young adult health beliefs was done in one of three ways: viewing social media sites/content assay (due north=25), assessing social media employ by interview or survey (north=46), and eliciting reactions to public posting on social media (n=6). 2nd, researchers used social media platforms for providing health information (n=xiii). Third, social media platforms were used to engage the community either by improving communication with HCP (northward=7) or leveraging social media to create an online community (n=x). Last, numerous studies used SNS as a means of research recruitment (n=23). Notably, several of the studies incorporated more than than i method of using social media ().
The following types of social media were used: MySpace (n=6), Facebook (due north=31), You Tube (n=2), and mixed social media platforms (n=37). A total of 11 studies exclusively involved other types of Web-based platforms, including Bebo, MyLOL.internet, patient blogs, email listservs, Spider web 2.0 portals "Diabit", "Upopolis", "NevaEvaLand", and "Mindcheck.ca" ().
A range of health care issues are addressed by the studies included in this systematic review. Common themes that arose included high-risk sexual behaviors (n=23), alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use (due north=19), cyberbullying or online sexual predators (northward=8), and mental health bug (n=18). Several studies focused on specific medical weather condition (n=11), such every bit diabetes, childhood cancers, or other chronic babyhood diseases. Other topics (n=12) addressed included organ donation, compulsive Net use, fettle, anxiety related to dental procedures, feasibility of using social media for enquiry recruitment, social support systems, and general social media employ. Several studies addressed overlapping topics. The summary of the findings from these studies is included in .
Of the 87 studies, 29 were targeted toward adolescents eleven-eighteen years of historic period, 53 of the studies included xix-25 year olds, and five of the studies did not define the employ of the term adolescent. Of the 12 interventional studies, nine of the studies involved immature adults between the ages of 19 and 25 years and only three involved those ≤xviii years of age. The content of the studies had notable differences: studies focused on those ≤eighteen years of age were more likely to focus on cyberbullying/sexual predators and specific medical disease than studies including those of an older historic period grouping. Studies involving older adolescents were more than apt to focus on sexual behaviors, alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use, and mental wellness. Studies geared toward younger adolescents were more apt to assess social media utilise, whereas studies aimed for older adolescents and immature adults used social media to provide health information or for enquiry recruitment ().
Limitations listed within the private studies were reviewed (several studies reported more than i limitation); 53 of the observational studies reported sampling biases and uncertain generalizability (62%), 34 reported limited number of variables assessed (40%), xxx reported limitations related to cocky-study (35%), and 20 cited incomplete datasets available due to constraints of SNS (24%). Other limitations included pocket-sized sample size (n=16, xix%) and disability to assess for causality (northward=14, 17%).
| Reason for exclusion | n |
| Not original enquiry: reviews, editorials, and commentaries | 59 |
| Methods or technical papers | seven |
| Guidelines | 4 |
| Papers not specific to adolescent or young adult ages | 100 |
| Papers not clearly involving online social media | 30 |
| Papers not relating to human health | 1 |
| Total number excluded | 201 |
| Social media apply | Study | |
| Observing behaviors (n=77) | ||
| | Viewing social media sites/content analysis (northward=25) | Moreno MA [,-], Egan KG [], Griffiths R [], Ridout B [], Whitehill JM [], Jenssen BP [], Pujazon-Zazik MA [], Marcus MA [], Lam CG [], Clerici CA [], Gao 10 [], Egan KG [], Stokes CE [], Villiard H [], Cash SJ [], Lefkowitz ES [], Robertson L [], Brockman LN [] |
| | Assessing social media employ via interview or survey (n=46) | Ybarra ML [,], Pantic I [], O'Dea B [,], Egan KG [,], Moreno MA [,], Dunlop SM [], Wang J [], Lam CG [], Clerici CA [], Nordfeldt S [,], Divecha Z [], Bauermeister JA [], Stoddard SA [], Lefkowitz ES [], Yang CC [], Jelenchick LA [], van der Velden 1000 [], Vyas AN [], Whiteley LB [], Veinot TC [], van Rooij AJ [], Rice E [,], Madan Thou [], Woolford SJ [], Juvonen J [], Perren Due south [], Tucker JS [], Machold C [], Gowen K [], Wolniczak I [], Campisi J [], Horgan A [], Dowdell EB [], Landry Chiliad [], Li TM [], Struik LL [], Black SR [], Selkie EM [], Veinot TC [], Pulman A [] |
| | Eliciting reaction to public comments ("posts") on social media (n=six) | Dunlop SM [], Robertson 50 [], Egan Thou [], Litt DM [], Immature SD [], Jones Chiliad [] |
| Providing health information (n=thirteen) | Lam CG [], Clerici CA [], Nordfeldt S [,], D'Alessandro AM [], Moreno MA [], Hedge KC [], Rice E [], Bull SS [], Jones Yard [], Livingston JD [], Li TM [], Lu AS [] | |
| Engaging a community (n=17) | ||
| | Improving advice with HCPs (n=vii) | Whitehill JM [], Nordfeldt S [,], Hedge KC [], Jones Chiliad [], Selkie EM [], Lu AS [] |
| | Creating an online community (n=10) | Rice E [], Nordfeldt S [,], Hedge KC [], Tichon JG [], Balderdash SS [], Livingston JD [], Jones K [], van der Velden Thou [], Li TM [] |
| Research study recruitment (n=23) | Gunasekaran B [], Jones L [], Ramo DE [], Fenner Y [], Moreno MA [-], Whitehill JM [], Rice E [], Stoddard SA [], Bauermeister JA [], Gamage DG [], Lord S [], Ahmed Due north [], Chu JL [], Kraaij V [], Ezell JM [], Brockman LN [], Jones K [], Struik LL [], Blackness SR [], Veinot TC [] | |
| Social media | Written report |
| MySpace (n=half-dozen) | Moreno MA [,,,,], Greenbacks SJ [] |
| Facebook (n=31) | Egan KG [,,], Ridout B [], Whitehill JM [], Ramo DE [], Moreno MA [,] Bauermeister JA [], Jones L [], Fenner Y [], Yang CC [], Gunasekaran B [], Madan G [], Villiard H [], Lefkowitz ES [], Brockman LN [], Wolniczak I [], Gamage DG [], Lord S [], Campisi J [], Ahmed Northward [], Chu JL [], Black SR [], Ezell JM [], Immature SD [], Bull SS [], Jones K [], Li TM [], Litt DM [], Woolford SJ [] |
| YouTube (n=two) | Gao X [], Clerici CA [] |
| Mixed social media (n=37) | Ybarra ML [,], Pantic I [], O'Dea B [,], Jenssen BP [], Moreno MA [,,,], Dunlop SM [], Wang J [], Lam CG [], D'Alessandro AM [], Divecha Z [], Hedge KC [], Stoddard SA [], Jelenchick LA [], Vyas AN [], Whiteley LB [], Veinot TC [], Rice E [,], van Rooij AJ [], Juvonen J [], Perren S [], Tucker JS [], Machold C [], Nordfeldt South [], Huang CG [],Gowen K [], Horgan A [], Struik LL [], Dowdell EB [], Landry K [], Selkie EM [], Pulman A [], Veinot TC [] |
| Other social media (n=11) | Interactive website/portal: myLOL.net: Pujazon-Zazik MA [], Diabit: Nordfeldt S [], Upopolis: van der Velden M [], NevaEvaLand: Stokes C [], Dutch SNS: Kraaij V [], mindcheck.ca: Livingston JD [] |
| | Weblog: Marcus MA [], Lu Equally [] |
| | Bebo: Griffiths R [], Robertson L [] |
| | Listserv: sibkids: Tochon JG [] |
| Study blazon and content | Exclusively 11-18 years | Including 19-25 years | Unspecified adolescent historic period | ||
| due north (%) | |||||
| Observational, n | 26 | 44 | 5 | ||
| Interventional, due north | 3 | nine | 0 | ||
| Content of studies | |||||
| | Sexual practice/sexually transmitted infection | v (16%) | 17 (31%) | i (20%) | |
| | Alcohol, drugs, tobacco | seven (23%) | 12 (23%) | 0 (0%) | |
| | Cyberbullying/ sexual predators | 7 (23%) | 1 (2%) | 0 (0%) | |
| | Mental health | 3 (ten%) | 15 (29%) | 0 (0%) | |
| | Medical disease | vi (19%) | 2 (4%) | 3 (60%) | |
| | Other | 3 (x%) | 8 (13%) | 1 (20%) | |
| Apply of social media | |||||
| | Find behaviors | ||||
| | | View social media sites/ content analysis (north=25) | 7 (24%) | 15 (28%) | 3 (60%) |
| | | Appraise social media use by interview or survey (n=46) | 19 (66%) | 26 (49%) | 1 (20%) |
| | | Elicit reaction to public posting on social media (north=6) | 2 (iii%) | 4 (14%) | 0 (0%) |
| | | Provide health data (n=xiii) | two (3%) | 9 (17%) | 2 (xl%) |
| | Engage customs | ||||
| | | Improve communication with HCP (n=seven) | 2 (7%) | five (ix%) | 0 (0%) |
| | | Create online customs (n=x) | iii (10%) | vi (eleven%) | 1 (20%) |
| | | Research study recruitment: (northward=22) | 2 (iii%) | 21 (forty%) | 0 (0%) |
Discussion
Overview
While the utilize of social media in health care remains in its infancy, a number of themes emerge on how this advice technology is being leveraged to improve understand wellness habits of adolescents and young adults and improve health care delivery to this population. Nosotros have found that at that place are four chief means in which social media have been used to interact with the adolescent and young adult population.
Observing Behaviors
Social media can offer powerful insights into the lives of young people. The bulk of the studies in this systematic review were observational studies that either analyzed content of social networking profiles of adolescents and young adults, or assessed social media use though questionnaires or interviews of adolescents and young adults regarding their apply of social media platforms. Mutual social behaviors that were observed related to sexual behaviors [,-,-,,,,-, ,,,,-], alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use [-,,,,,,,,,,,,,], mental wellness [,,,,,,,,,,,,,,], and online safety [,,,,,,,]. Past sharing life experiences with the larger public, social media users offering a window into their lives, oftentimes revealing the social pressures and expectations they experience. Their postings offer opportunities for HCPs to identify risky health behaviors and health bug that might take been missed during routine health screening, thereby offering opportunities for intervention.
The frequency with which mental health issues are discussed among immature people using social media advise that this offers a potentially fruitful area for the awarding of social media to help ameliorate the lives of its users. A positive correlation has been found between depressive symptoms and fourth dimension spent on online social networks [], suggesting that depression may be common among individuals who spend a pregnant amount of time on social media. Another study establish that over 50% of secondary schoolhouse students experienced a need for mental health back up and 47% believed that SNS could help with these mental problems []. Given that adolescents and young adults are already turning to social media for communication and shared experiences, it may behoove HCPs to listen and to seize this opportunity to reach out with accurate information and back up.
Past enabling individuals to share their thoughts, behaviors, and experiences with a larger audience, social media can also contribute to the establishment of social norms leading to the creation of pressures to "fit in" among adolescents and young adults. A well-known problem, confirmed past analysis of social media content, is the high prevalence of booze use amid adolescents and young adults: 25% of teenagers ages sixteen-17 years old [], 56% of 17-20 yr olds [], and 85% of college students [] brandish references to alcohol on social media. The high prevalence of alcohol references on these "intoxigenic" digital spaces [], a term used by one author to describe pro-alcohol sentiments on social media, leads to the normalization of alcohol use. Given that threescore% of college students report potentially problematic booze use [], such normalization of high-risk behavior online adds to the already daunting challenge that HCPs confront in counseling against alcohol abuse. Withal, the apply of social media past providers for this purpose may be express by its perceived acceptability by adolescent and young adult users. I study investigating preferred means of communication regarding mental wellness issues found that adolescents did not feel comfortable having an unknown HCP screen their social media sites, and described having a stranger screening their Facebook pages for signs of low as "creepy" [].
The normalization of high-take a chance behaviors is non limited to alcohol alone. The apply of tobacco and other drugs, violence, sexual behavior, and even suicidality are too commonly displayed on social media platforms. Tobacco imagery is frequently shared on social media [] and 9% of teenagers aged 16-17 years describe or display cigarette use on their SNS profiles []; 15-24% of adolescents also displayed sexual references [,]. Such postings have specially apropos implications, every bit they may increase sexual expectations when adolescents are using social media to evaluate potential partners []. Even suicidality has been found to be impacted past social media through the availability of suicide stories [].
Online safety is a major concern among studies involving social media: 9% of children ages x-17 years written report having been harassed online over the form of a yr [] and 4% received unwanted sexual solicitation []. This has important implications, not just for safety, but also for mental health as cyber-bully victims accept higher depression rates when compared to traditional "offline" swell-victims []. Adding to the potential chance is the fact that even potentially sensitive behaviors are typically not posted anonymously: one written report constitute that 97% of SNS contained personal identifiers, such as including a contour photo, full name, and hometown []. Yet, privacy settings within different SNS varies and data that may be viewed publically may modify over time.
Providing Health Information
A number of studies accept used social media platforms as channels to provide health information to educate and invoke behavior alter among young people. These platforms take tended to be disease-specific, providing information on childhood cancers [,], diabetes [], and organ-donation []. Although it has been suggested that social media may not be a preferred method of contact regarding health information [], most such studies nonetheless demonstrated a positive bear on on their target audiences. For example, an intensive organ donation program utilizing multiple social media platforms to provide organ donation statistics and information was able to increase organ donor registration by 28% []. Another study, targeting adolescents at high take a chance for sexually transmitted diseases, plant that brief preventive counseling in the class of a message sent by social media reduced the display of "risky" behaviors online [].
Engaging Adolescents and Immature Adults
Social media also provides an opportunity for the wellness care community to become involved in discussions with adolescents and immature adults, thereby engaging them in ways not possible inside the traditional role setting. This may indeed be the true "gold mine" of incorporating social media into wellness care for this population. As supported by our review of the literature, researchers have only recently begun exploring ways to reach out to adolescents and young adults through social media in the hopes of creating online communities to improve patient-provider communication. Studies performed to date have primarily assessed the acceptability of using social media through observational studies to interact with young people and have achieved mixed results, probable reflecting our collective lack of feel with the use of social media for this purpose. For instance, a report that invited members to join an interactive Spider web two.0 portal consisting of an extensive library of health instruction data, in the class of text, videos, and simulation software, social networking capability through message boards and blogs, services for renewing medications and scheduling appointments, and sending questions to the medical team, found that participants welcomed this blazon of health-related community as a source of information and support []. Notwithstanding, engagement with the Web 2.0 portal was hindered past the lack of oftentimes updated information and complicated log-in procedures []. Clearly, a social media platform that fails to sustain user engagement is unlikely to exist an effective means of improving health care outcomes in the long term [].
Recruiting Adolescents and Young Adults for Research
Beyond engaging adolescents and young adults in discussions about health, social media tin can also be used in research recruitment efforts. A number of studies identified participants from their postings on social media and subsequently approached them nearly participating [-,,,,]. Another report was able to leverage social media to locate study participants who would have otherwise been lost to follow-upwardly []. In add-on to being a price-effective and efficient means of inquiry recruitment, social media enables researchers to reach a demographically representative sample of adolescents and young adults, including those traditionally underrepresented in research (eg, high-risk individuals and those living in rural communities), and as well past providing real-time monitoring of recruitment efforts []. Such findings suggest that recruitment of adolescents and immature adults for research studies may be achieved more than effectively and efficiently through social media channels.
Barriers to Using Social Media
Despite the wealth of opportunities, at that place remains business organisation and potential barriers to using social media for health care applications in the adolescent and immature adult population. Privacy and confidentiality bug are a business concern, especially when discussing sensitive or stigmatized health topics online through non-secured formats, and young people have expressed a preference for accessing credible health-related information anonymously []. Because adolescents generally prefer to seek assistance from their peers and people that they know rather than from HCPs and strangers, developing an adequate manner to leverage social media for health care purposes may be difficult [,]. In their efforts to interact with young people over social media in means that will appoint them, HCPs must exist mindful of maintaining professional person boundaries and patient privacy. Another business organization is that HCPs would be expected to proceed upward with this ever-changing, fast-paced dialogue on social media that can evolve and spread quickly, with potentially dire consequences. For case, in the case of suicide contagion, information technology may not be possible for providers to recognize the problem and intervene rapidly plenty to prevent adolescents and young adults from impairment. Furthermore, statements fabricated on social media may not reflect the author's bodily land of health or behaviors, particularly if adolescents and young adults exaggerate or falsify information that they share over social media every bit a result of social desirability bias. Information technology is important to also note that the majority of studies that we reviewed focused on publicly bachelor content on social media, and what teens share openly may not fully reverberate the true extent of their behaviors in their twenty-four hours-to-24-hour interval lives. Final, considering of the open nature of social media and the potential for posting of exaggerated, falsified, or untrue statements on these platforms, the credibility and trustworthiness of the posted content will remain an issue, unless in that location are systems in place to monitor the quality and content of information on social media platforms.
Limitations
The strengths of our paper lie in the comprehensive and systematic approach we took to review the literature, along with our deliberate and detailed approach to reviewing each full-text commodity. Nevertheless, there are limitations to this systematic review that warrant because. Start, it is possible that, despite our attempts to capture all pertinent articles through the use of numerous carefully selected search terms, some relevant studies may have unintentionally been excluded. Furthermore, because many social media platforms (including Twitter, Pinterest, and Flickr) practice not include documentation of age, many of the observational studies on these platforms were excluded equally the age of the study population could not be confirmed. Another potential limitation of the written report is in our inclusion criteria for age. We chose to include research involving adolescents as immature as 11 years old upwardly to young, higher-aged adults of ages upwards to 25 years due to similarities in the wellness risks and concerns, reported behaviors, and patterns of social media apply. This broader age range provided a greater volume of studies, which nosotros believe offered more comprehensive insight into the potential uses of social media to touch the wellness of immature people. Furthermore, it is possible that studies pertinent to this review may have been missed as a result of keywords used in the commodity selection procedure. However, trends for use of SNS within adolescents and young adults were observed, as described above.
Future Directions
Social media and social networking platforms are relatively novel ways of communication, driven primarily by young people, which take been growing and changing ever since their emergence in the early 21st century. Currently, over 70% of adults obtain wellness information predominantly online [], but given the growing popularity of social media, it has the potential of becoming a more than significant source of online health information in the coming years. Users of social media and those in other fields, such as the advertising industry, sympathise how the medium tin can be leveraged for the sharing of data, but the medical and scientific community has been slow to embrace these technologies. Ironically, many health care providers overlook the fact that when they themselves search for health information online on search engines, they frequently find themselves on Wikipedia, which itself is a social media platform.
Understanding how individuals engage on SNS and eat information will enable HCPs and wellness care provider organizations to make their content and patient date strategies more online-friendly. The number of people using social networking platforms daily continues to grow steadily and this ubiquity can help HCPs engage with patients on a platform they may already be using. For example, communicating with patients near office appointments, lab tests, or even allowing them to ask questions and share content straight through SNS could greatly facilitate patient-provider communication and increment patients' participation in their ain care. Additionally, with the emergence of mobile engineering, SNS are becoming increasingly "real time", immediate, and local. The combination of SNS with mobile technology makes it possible to learn about patient behaviors and daily habits, and to intervene with relevant and timely messaging, coaching, and interventions. Furthermore, reckoner-generated predictive analytics could be established to screen SNS for keywords or images associated with health intendance-related problems, automating the process of SNS surveillance in a more patient-accepted format, which may feel less "creepy" to adolescents and young adults while all the same capturing important opportunities for positive intervention. In the future, the rich data available through SNS and mobile technology may enable HCPs to get more proactive about health care delivery.
Conclusions
Although many HCPs remain timid nearly the apply of social media in the care of patients, this review demonstrates that social media is already being used for a variety of purposes and in a number of different ways to engage, educate, and improve the health of its users. Most studies done to engagement have been observational in nature, examining how adolescents and young adults communicate on social media and the resulting implications on their wellness. Although these explorations are essential, further exploration and development of these strategies into building effective interventions that can positively bear on the health of immature people is warranted. I of the greatest challenges in harnessing social media is the constant and rapid step of evolution, including the continual evolution of new technologies and the ever-changing popularity and adoption of specific platforms among dissimilar user demographics. In order to stay on top of this rapidly evolving field, ongoing study of the use of SNS by adolescents and young adults will be critical. Further research is necessary to establish whether social media can be an effective tool to help achieve positive health outcomes in the boyish and young adult population.
Conflicts of Interest
None alleged.
Abbreviations
| HCP: health care providers |
| PRISMA: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Assay |
| SNS: social networking sites |
Edited by G Eysenbach; submitted 08.07.14; peer-reviewed by C Lombardo, O Kulyk; comments to author 28.08.xiv; revised version received 09.10.14; accepted 01.11.xiv; published 05.01.15
Copyright©Lael M Yonker, Shiyi Zan, Christina 5 Scirica, Kamal Jethwani, T Bernard Kinane. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://world wide web.jmir.org), 05.01.2015.
This is an open-admission article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ii.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original piece of work, outset published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
Source: https://www.jmir.org/2015/1/e4/
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