Perceptions of Health Information on General and Medical Social Media Sites

Rich, Brea Hope (2014) Perceptions of Health Information on General and Medical Social Media Sites. Undergraduate thesis, under the direction of Dr. Donna West-Strum from Pharmacy Administration, The University of Mississippi.

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Abstract

The goal of this thesis is to identify and discuss the public’s perception on health information found on general and medical social media sites. To discover this information, a survey was sent to employees of South Tippah School District. It was found that people are more likely to use general social media sites compared to medical social media sites. People are more likely to share medical information than receive information on either type of site. Most people doubt or are uncertain of the credibility of health information on social media sites. The benefit found most in reading or sharing medical information on social media sites is increased social support. Medical social media users greatly support the idea of health care provider monitoring on these sites. This information is useful to pharmacists as they realize that each patient they are encountering could very likely have knowledge gained from peers on a social media sites. Pharmacists should also be aware of the study’s findings as they consider creating their own social media sites for their pharmacies.

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