Social Networks as Sources of Health Information

Abstract

The objectives of this research were, first, to identify what is the use that citizens in Puerto Rico give to social media to search for health information. Second, know how confident people are on social networks. We analyze whether Puerto Ricans use social media as sources of health information to look for information on various diseases and health issues such as: illness or medical problem, medical treatment or procedure, medical or other health professionals, hospitals and other medical institutions, health insurance, pregnancy or childbirth, decisions about critically ill patients, long-term care, food safety, drug safety, chronic pain management, medical examination results and memory loss, dementia or Alzheimer's. In addition, we made a comparison between social media search and web pages. We discover the usefulness of such information, perceived reliance on sources, understanding of information, and whether it is considered up-to-date. We also verified the importance of data obtained from these social media sources in health decision-making, in contrast to website information. In general, although social media shows increasing importance, even in the search for health information, which is our researched topic, websites show even greater confidence in the citizen, when searching and obtaining such data.