The Use of Social Networking Sites for Public Health Practice and Research: a Systematic Review

Overview

Journal J Med Internet Res

Publisher JMIR Publications

Specialty Medical Informatics

Date 2014 Mar 20

PMID 24642014

Citations 103

Authors

Daniel Capurro

Kate Cole

Maria I Echavarria

Jonathan Joe

Tina Neogi

Anne M Turner

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Social networking sites (SNSs) have the potential to increase the reach and efficiency of essential public health services, such as surveillance, research, and communication.

Objective: The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic literature review to identify the use of SNSs for public health research and practice and to identify existing knowledge gaps.

Methods: We performed a systematic literature review of articles related to public health and SNSs using PubMed, EMBASE, and CINAHL to search for peer-reviewed publications describing the use of SNSs for public health research and practice. We also conducted manual searches of relevant publications. Each publication was independently reviewed by 2 researchers for inclusion and extracted relevant study data.

Results: A total of 73 articles met our inclusion criteria. Most articles (n=50) were published in the final 2 years covered by our search. In all, 58 articles were in the domain of public health research and 15 were in public health practice. Only 1 study was conducted in a low-income country. Most articles (63/73, 86%) described observational studies involving users or usages of SNSs; only 5 studies involved randomized controlled trials. A large proportion (43/73, 59%) of the identified studies included populations considered hard to reach, such as young individuals, adolescents, and individuals at risk of sexually transmitted diseases or alcohol and substance abuse. Few articles (2/73, 3%) described using the multidirectional communication potential of SNSs to engage study populations.

Conclusions: The number of publications about public health uses for SNSs has been steadily increasing in the past 5 years. With few exceptions, the literature largely consists of observational studies describing users and usages of SNSs regarding topics of public health interest. More studies that fully exploit the communication tools embedded in SNSs and study their potential to produce significant effects in the overall population's health are needed.

Citing Articles

Co-Designing a Framework for Social Media Health Communication to Young People: A Participatory Research Study.

Taba M, Ayre J, McCaffery K, Vassilenko D, Ma I, Haynes T Health Expect. 2025; 28(2):e70203.

PMID: 40052560 PMC: 11886886. DOI: 10.1111/hex.70203.

Comparison of the Effect of Distance and Face-to-face Breastfeeding Education on Female Nursing Students' Knowledge: A Quasi-experimental Study.

Kevenjan M, Vizeshfar F, Zarshenas L Int J Community Based Nurs Midwifery. 2025; 13(1):67-76.

PMID: 39906249 PMC: 11788776. DOI: 10.30476/ijcbnm.2024.100709.2379.

Frequency of probable social media addiction and correlates of problematic social networking sites use in a sample of transgender adults.

Grupp K, Blessmann M, Konig H, Hajek A Heliyon. 2025; 11(1):e41674.

PMID: 39866397 PMC: 11762157. DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2025.e41674.

Identifying Marijuana Use Behaviors Among Youth Experiencing Homelessness Using a Machine Learning-Based Framework: Development and Evaluation Study.

Deng T, Urbaczewski A, Lee Y, Barman-Adhikari A, Dewri R JMIR AI. 2024; 3:e53488.

PMID: 39419495 PMC: 11528171. DOI: 10.2196/53488.

Experiences of abortion care in Australia: a qualitative study examining multiple dimensions of access.

Wickramasinghe S, Fisher J, Taft A, Makleff S BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2024; 24(1):652.

PMID: 39375656 PMC: 11457415. DOI: 10.1186/s12884-024-06758-8.

References

Baptist A, Thompson M, Grossman K, Mohammed L, Sy A, Sanders G . Social media, text messaging, and email-preferences of asthma patients between 12 and 40 years old. J Asthma. 2011; 48(8):824-30. DOI: 10.3109/02770903.2011.608460. View

Su X, Suominen H, Hanlen L . Machine intelligence for health information: capturing concepts and trends in social media via query expansion. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2011; 168:150-7. View

Gowen K, Deschaine M, Gruttadara D, Markey D . Young adults with mental health conditions and social networking websites: seeking tools to build community. Psychiatr Rehabil J. 2012; 35(3):245-50. DOI: 10.2975/35.3.2012.245.250. View

Egan K, Moreno M . Alcohol references on undergraduate males' Facebook profiles. Am J Mens Health. 2011; 5(5):413-20. PMC: 3210384. DOI: 10.1177/1557988310394341. View

Stephenson R, Khosropour C, Sullivan P . Reporting of Intimate Partner Violence among Men Who Have Sex with Men in an Online Survey. West J Emerg Med. 2010; 11(3):242-6. PMC: 2941360. View

Oh H, Lee B . The effect of computer-mediated social support in online communities on patient empowerment and doctor-patient communication. Health Commun. 2011; 27(1):30-41. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2011.567449. View

Kontos E, Emmons K, Puleo E, Viswanath K . Communication inequalities and public health implications of adult social networking site use in the United States. J Health Commun. 2010; 15 Suppl 3:216-35. PMC: 3073379. DOI: 10.1080/10810730.2010.522689. View

Egan K, Moreno M . Prevalence of stress references on college freshmen Facebook profiles. Comput Inform Nurs. 2011; 29(10):586-92. PMC: 3205256. DOI: 10.1097/NCN.0b013e3182160663. View

Pletneva N, Cruchet S, Simonet M, Kajiwara M, Boyer C . Results of the 10 HON survey on health and medical internet use. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2011; 169:73-7. View

10.

Moreno M, VanderStoep A, Parks M, Zimmerman F, Kurth A, Christakis D . Reducing at-risk adolescents' display of risk behavior on a social networking web site: a randomized controlled pilot intervention trial. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009; 163(1):35-41. DOI: 10.1001/archpediatrics.2008.502. View

11.

Bull S, Breslin L, Wright E, Black S, Levine D, Santelli J . Case study: An ethics case study of HIV prevention research on Facebook: the Just/Us study. J Pediatr Psychol. 2011; 36(10):1082-92. PMC: 3199441. DOI: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsq126. View

12.

Silenzio V, Duberstein P, Tang W, Lu N, Tu X, Homan C . Connecting the invisible dots: reaching lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescents and young adults at risk for suicide through online social networks. Soc Sci Med. 2009; 69(3):469-74. PMC: 2768574. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.05.029. View

13.

Keelan J, Pavri V, Balakrishnan R, Wilson K . An analysis of the Human Papilloma Virus vaccine debate on MySpace blogs. Vaccine. 2009; 28(6):1535-40. DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2009.11.060. View

14.

Signorini A, Segre A, Polgreen P . The use of Twitter to track levels of disease activity and public concern in the U.S. during the influenza A H1N1 pandemic. PLoS One. 2011; 6(5):e19467. PMC: 3087759. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0019467. View

15.

Rosselli R, Onesti A, Martini M, Cartiglia C, Sticchi L, Alberti M . @Prevention: a website project for prevention in the healthcare setting. J Prev Med Hyg. 2011; 52(2):59-63. View

16.

Selkie E, Benson M, Moreno M . Adolescents' Views Regarding Uses of Social Networking Websites and Text Messaging for Adolescent Sexual Health Education. Am J Health Educ. 2012; 42(4):205-212. PMC: 3251629. DOI: 10.1080/19325037.2011.10599189. View

17.

Lamb J, Puskar K . Adolescent research recruitment issues and strategies: application in a rural school setting. J Pediatr Nurs. 2001; 16(1):43-52. DOI: 10.1053/jpdn.2001.20552. View

18.

Jensen T, Jensen P, Norgard J, Bolund L . High-frequency transfection of cultured human epidermal basal cells that differentiate to form a multilayered tissue. Exp Cell Res. 1990; 189(2):163-8. DOI: 10.1016/0014-4827(90)90231-x. View

19.

Griffiths R, Casswell S . Intoxigenic digital spaces? Youth, social networking sites and alcohol marketing. Drug Alcohol Rev. 2010; 29(5):525-30. DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2010.00178.x. View

20.

Chew C, Eysenbach G . Pandemics in the age of Twitter: content analysis of Tweets during the 2009 H1N1 outbreak. PLoS One. 2010; 5(11):e14118. PMC: 2993925. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0014118. View