Elia Gabarron, Norway
University Hospital of North Norway Norwegian Center for E-health ResearchPresenter of 1 Presentation
ENGAGEMENT IN DIABETES HEALTH EDUCATION CONTENT ON FACEBOOK
Abstract
Background and Aims
Research suggests that social media could represent valuable channels for diabetes patient education. This study analyzes the engagement with health education contents posted on the Norwegian Diabetes Association’s (NDA) Facebook page.
Methods
All Facebook posts from NDA published between 01/01/2017 and 30/06/2019 were extracted, and classified according to its main contents’ type. This study was declared exempt by the Ethics Committee (REK-Sør-Øst,Ref:2017/764C). The treatment of personal information was approved by the data-protection officer at the University Hospital North Norway (Ref:0720).
Results
A total of 417 Facebook posts were published during the study period. Health education contents (i.e., learn self-management, self-monitoring) were the most shared type of content (p<0,05). A remarkable significant low engagement around exercise promotion’ contents was found, being both the least liked, shared, and commented (p<0,05). The table shows the engagement around the different types of content.
| Content type Number(%) | Likes Mean(SD) | Shares Mean(SD) | Comments Mean(SD) |
| Health education=71(17,0%) | 220,8(505,3) | 85,5(260,6)* | 18,29(36,6) |
| Exercise promotion=25(6,0%) | 47,2(31,0)** | 8,1(7,9)** | 2,7(2,5)** |
| Other (i.e., awareness, conferences, gatherings)=321(77,0%) | 239,2(343,9) | 50,5(110,8) | 25,7(44,4)* |
| Total=417(100%) | 224,6(368,8) | 54,0(146,1) | 23,4(42,4) |
*Students t-test, p<0,05; **Mann-Whitney U test, p<0,05
Conclusions
Social media users engage considerably in health education content posted on Facebook. Since physical activity is very relevant for diabetes, exercise promotion’ content posted on social media should be presented in different ways to be more engaging.
Acknowledgements
We sincerely thank the Norwegian Diabetes Association (Diabetesforbundet) for their engagement in this study. This study is funded by Helse Nord RHF’s research fund (HNF1370-17).