Feasibility Study of Social Media for Public Health Behaviour Changes

TL;DR

This study explores the potential of using social media campaigns on platforms like Twitter and Facebook to influence public health behaviors, specifically aiming to prevent skin cancer.

Contribution

It presents a novel social media intervention design and evaluates its feasibility for promoting health knowledge and behavior change.

Findings

Social media can serve as an effective tool for health promotion.

The campaign successfully increased awareness about skin cancer prevention.

Preliminary evidence suggests potential for behavior change through social media interventions.

Abstract

Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have been shown to function as effective social sensors that can "feel the pulse" of a community. The aim of the current study is to test the feasibility of designing, implementing and evaluating a bespoke social media-enabled intervention that can be effective for sharing and changing knowledge, attitudes and behaviours in meaningful ways to promote public health, specifically with regards to prevention of skin cancer. We present the design and implementation details of the campaign followed by summary findings and analysis.