Social Media Usage in Kuwait: A Comparison of Perspectives Between Healthcare Practitioners and Patients

TL;DR

This study compares healthcare practitioners' and patients' social media use in Kuwait, revealing decreased usage for medical purposes and highlighting the need for specialized platforms to enhance engagement and privacy.

Contribution

It provides novel insights into social media behaviors of Kuwaiti healthcare practitioners and patients, emphasizing the design of tailored platforms to improve medical engagement.

Findings

Patients are more aware of health education and support networks.

Practitioners mainly use social media for information and professional development.

Decreased social media use for medical purposes among both groups.

Abstract

Social Media has been transforming numerous activities of everyday life, impacting also healthcare. However, few studies investigate the medical use of social media by patients and medical practitioners, especially in the Arabian Gulf region and Kuwait. To understand the behavior of patients and medical practitioners in social media toward healthcare and medical purposes, we conducted user studies. Through an online survey, we identified a decrease in patients and medical practitioners use of social media for medical purposes. Patients reported to be more aware than practitioners concerning: health education, health-related network support, and communication activities. While practitioners use social media mostly as a source of medical information, for clinician marketing and for professional development. The findings highlighted the need to design a social media platform that support healthcare online campaign, professional career identity, medical repository, and social privacy setting to increase users engagements toward medical purposes.