JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Over the past two decades, use of social media has grown among US adults. Common social media platforms include Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), LinkedIn, and Tiktok. People proactively use social media for a variety of purposes including searching for health information, peer-to-peer social support, and health-related information sharing. As social media platforms often serve as sources of health information, understanding how, if at all, people use these platforms may inform future behavioral interventions delivered via social media. Additionally, a better understanding of social engagement may have implications for public health messaging and patient-centered communication.

Objective:

Using a nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized US adults, we explored how factors including subjective numeracy (i.e., ease of understanding medical statistics), interpersonal communication with family and friends, and perceived discrimination influence whether people ever watched versus never watched health-related videos on social media platforms.

Methods:

We analyzed the National Cancer Institute’s Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS 6) data, which were collected from March to November 2022 (N=6,252). After excluding participants who did not have complete data for all variables of interest, we analyzed responses from 4,543 participants. Respondents were asked, "In the past 12 months, how often did you watch a health-related video on a social media site (e.g., YouTube)?" Response options included: almost every day, at least once a week, a few times a month, less than once a month, and never. We collapsed answers into two groups: ever watched and never watched a health-related video on a social media platform. Odds ratios (OR), 95% confidence intervals (CI), and p-values were calculated using SAS. A multivariate logistic regression model was considered using all factors that were univariately significant with p<0.10. Using backward elimination, factors that were not significant with p>0.05 were removed one-at-a-time until remaining factors were all significant collectively with p<0.05.

Results:

In the multivariable analysis, all age group categories over 50 years were less likely to watch health-related videos compared to those aged 18-34, with respondents aged 75 years and older having the lowest odds of all groups for watching a health-related video (OR=0.16, p<.001) Higher odds of watching health-related videos were observed among respondents who were Black (OR=1.59, p<0.01), Hispanic (OR=1.54, p=0.01), and from “Other” minority groups (OR=2.07, p=0.01) compared to White respondents. College graduates (OR=1.71, p<0.01), those who found medical statistics easy to understand (OR=1.29, p=0.04), talked about health with friends or family (OR=1.68, p<0.01), or experienced racial discrimination in medical care (OR=1.59, p=0.02) also had higher odds of watching health-related videos on social media.

Conclusions:

Findings from this study may help target health communication campaigns on social media designed to improve screening, lifestyle changes, medication adherence, and disease management. Clinical Trial: n/a