Utilising Social Media for Intervening and Predicting Future Health in Societies

Abstract

Abstract. Background: The aims of this paper are to describe 1. systematic reviews describing the relation between social media and health and 2. previous research on utilising social media for predicting health on a population level. Method: A literature search utilising PubMed was performed in March 2014.The inclusion criteria were that the article describes 1. the relation between social media and health or 2. the utilisation of social media in predicting health on a population level. Results: 11 systematic reviews and 4 articles were included in this review. The included articles were published between 2009-2014. There is a lack of knowledge about the relation and outcomes of social media and health. No systematic review on utilising social media to predict health on a population level was identified. Conclusions: Social media may carry crucial yet undiscovered means to predict and interfere in the health of populations. Future research, innovation and development in this area are highly recommended.Keywords: Social media, public health, health promotion. IntroductionSocial media herein refers to a constellation of Internet-based applications that derive their value from the participation of users through directly creating original content, modifying existing material, contributing to a community dialogue and integrating various media together to create something unique [1]. Popular social media sites magnetise hundreds of users nowadays -the leading site is Facebook, which has well over a billion active users. Twitter, VK, Sina Weibo, to name a few other sites, have also reported rapid growth. A sophisticated guess is that in the OECD countries, two thirds of the population use social media more or less regularly. In fact, social media has integrated into the lives of people. Social media has brought with it 'media life', which Deuze [2] calls "the state where media has become so inseparable from us that we do not live with media, but in it" [3]. In a hyperconnected and networked society posts on Twitter may become a meme -a rapidly spreading and mutating piece of information [4]. Utilising Social Media for Intervening and Predicting Future Health in Societies 101In contrast to traditional mass communication, social media is an unregulated context which allows ordinary people to publish almost anything that come to their minds. Presumably social media carries several benefits as well as challenges for health and well-being on the individual, community and national but also on the continental and global levels. Social media has been suggested to be useful in the context of health promotion for purposes such as sharing information, developing positive brand pictures, expanding the reach of health promotion interventions to diverse audiences, supporting target group empowerment, engagement and participation. These features carry several benefits for health promoting but also for health contradictive purposes. [5][6].Knowledge of how social media is related to health is still lacking but the body of knowledge in...