| Title |
The Use of Social Media by State Health Departments in the US: Analyzing Health Communication Through Facebook
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Journal of Community Health, August 2015
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s10900-015-0083-4 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Ayan Jha, Leesa Lin, Elena Savoia |
| Abstract |
The use of social media as a powerful health communication tool is an area of current research interest. Our objective was to describe use of Facebook by State Health Departments (SHDs) in US, and their relationship with CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data. Facebook pages of 34 SHDs were studied over a 200 day period, coding 2597 posts into 19 broad health communication categories. Mean number of Facebook posts per SHD was 76.4 (range 34-133); most frequent topic areas included healthy living (12 %), communicable diseases (9 %), vaccines and immunization (7 %), emergency preparedness and response (7 %), infant and child health (5 %), smoking and tobacco use (5 %), and miscellaneous (32 %). Through web-based interactive graphics (Google motion charts), we contrasted Facebook posts with CDC's BRFSS data on adult nutrition and physical activity, vaccination, smoking, adolescent health and road traffic accidents. Our research finds an apparent disconnect between content provided on Facebook by SHDs and the health conditions that affect their populations. Acknowledging the severe limitations in funding and human resources faced by the SHDs, our research attempts to present the factual situation in embracing a vastly popular social media platform for health communication. We believe there is a need for research exploring methods to balance the demands and resources. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 14 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 6 | 43% |
| United Kingdom | 2 | 14% |
| Switzerland | 1 | 7% |
| Spain | 1 | 7% |
| Unknown | 4 | 29% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 8 | 57% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 4 | 29% |
| Scientists | 1 | 7% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 7% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 198 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | 2 | 1% |
| United States | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 195 | 98% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 37 | 19% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 24 | 12% |
| Student > Bachelor | 24 | 12% |
| Researcher | 17 | 9% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 11 | 6% |
| Other | 34 | 17% |
| Unknown | 51 | 26% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Social Sciences | 33 | 17% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 30 | 15% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 25 | 13% |
| Psychology | 11 | 6% |
| Linguistics | 5 | 3% |
| Other | 25 | 13% |
| Unknown | 69 | 35% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 20. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 August 2022.
All research outputs
#1,681,688
of 23,509,982 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Community Health
#110
of 1,239 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#23,570
of 268,074 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Community Health
#3
of 21 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,509,982 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 92nd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,239 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 12.9. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 268,074 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 21 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 85% of its contemporaries.