COVID-19 and social media: doctors' opinion
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20262245Keywords:
Social media, COVID-19, Social networking, Internet, Infodemic, HealthcareAbstract
Background: Several research and literature available regarding the impact of social media on healthcare are increasing and play a vital role during COVID-19 in disseminating information. Numerous studies gauging the public’s opinion are available, but minimal reports about the doctors regarding the role of social media. This current study aims to capture the view of the doctors who worked during the pandemic regarding the role of social media.
Methods: This cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey study captures the opinion of doctors in India during the pandemic. A pre-tested questionnaire was circulated among doctors and the data was collected from January 2022 to November 2022. After discarding 11 incomplete responses, 389 responses were considered in the analysis based on Cochran’s formula. Simple statistical tests were used using MS Excel.
Results: Out of 389 responses, 69% are Male and 28% are Female and the majority are Specialists (39%). Most of the responded doctors are in the active age group, with 36% between 30-39 years. More than 50 % of the population of doctors have zero to ten years of experience. They collectively opine that social media have more negative impacts (~70%) than positive ones (~48%) and most (72.9%) felt the need for some control/regulatory mechanism.
Conclusions: The study concluded that doctors acknowledged the positive role of social media but simultaneously cautioned about the negative aspects, especially in spreading medical misinformation/infodemic and warned that social media should be used to share official information with caution.
References
Bayer JB, Triệu P, Ellison NB. Social media elements, ecologies, and effects. Annu Rev Psychol. 2020;71:471-97.
Michael P, Venkatesh RD, Stukus DR. Social media and its impact on health care. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2022;128(2):139-45.
Zhao Y, Zhang J. Consumer health information seeking in social media: a literature review. Health Info Libr J. 2017;34(4):268-83.
González-Padilla DA, Tortolero-Blanco L. Social media influence in the COVID-19 pandemic. Int Braz J Urol. 2020;46(1):120-4.
Muhammed TS, Mathew SK. The disaster of misinformation: a review of research in social media. Int J Data Sci Anal. 2022;13:271-85.
Joseph AM, Fernandez V, Kritzman S, Eaddy I, Cook OM, Lambros S, et al. COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media: A Scoping Review. Cureus. 2022;14(4):e24601.
Martindale JM, Mink JW. The rise of functional tic-like behaviors: what do the COVID-19 pandemic and social media have to do with it? A narrative review. Front Pediatr. 2022;10:863919.
Corinti F, Pontillo D, Giansanti D. COVID-19 and the infodemic: an overview of the role and impact of social media, the evolution of medical knowledge, and emerging problems. Healthcare. 2022;10(4):732.
Skafle I, Nordahl-Hansen A, Quintana DS, Wynn R, Gabarron E. Misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines on social media: rapid review. J Med Internet Res. 2022;24(8):e37367.
Tsao SF, Chen H, Tisseverasinghe T, Yang Y, Li L, Butt ZA. What social media told us in the time of COVID-19: a scoping review. Lancet Digit Health. 2021;3(3):e175-94.
Glasdam S, Sandberg H, Stjernswärd S, Jacobsen FF, Grønning AH, Hybholt S. Nurses’ use of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review. PLoS One. 2022;17(2):e0263502.
Farsi D, Martinez-Menchaca HR, Ahmed M, Farsi N. Social Media and Health Care (Part II): Narrative Review of Social Media Use by Patients. J Med Int Res. 2022;24(1):e30379.
Coman C, Bularca MC, Repanovici A, Rogozea L. Misinformation about medication during the COVID– 19 pandemic: A perspective of medical staff. PLOS ONE. 2022;17(10):e0276693.
Emanuel EJ, Persad G, Upshur R, Thome B, Parker M, Glickman A, et al. Fair Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources in the Time of Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2020;382:2049-55.
Hua J, Shaw R. Corona Virus (COVID-19) “Infodemic” and Emerging Issues through a Data Lens: The Case of China. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17:2309.
Chatterjee P. Gaps in India’s preparedness for COVID-19 control. Lancet Infect Dis. 2020;20(5):544.
Han X, Wang J, Zhang M, Wang X. Using social media to mine and analyze public opinion related to COVID-19 in China. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17:2788.
Gozzi N, Tizzani M, Starnini M, Ciulla F, Paul S, Singh P, et al. Collective response to media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic on Reddit and Wikipedia: mixed-methods analysis. J Med Int Res. 2020;22:e21597.
Basch CH, Hillyer GC, Meleo-Erwin ZC, Jaime C, Mohlman J, Basch CE. Preventive behaviors conveyed on YouTube to mitigate transmission of COVID-19: cross-sectional study. JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2020;6:e18807.
Li C, Chen LJ, Chen X, Zhang M, Pang CP, Chen H. Retrospective analysis of the possibility of predicting the COVID-19 outbreak from Internet searches and social media data, China, 2020. Euro Surveill. 2020;25:2000199.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
