# Enhancing pediatricians’ engagement on social media: the role of board style questions

## TL;DR

This study found that easier medical exam-style questions posted on social media led to more engagement from pediatricians.

## Contribution

The study identifies that question difficulty significantly affects social media engagement among pediatricians.

## Key findings

- More difficult questions received fewer comments and lower correct response rates.
- Easy questions generated significantly more comments than hard ones.
- Question relevance and word count had no significant impact on engagement.

## Abstract

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Background: Social Media is used among medical professionals for collaborative education. Little is known about how case discussions prompt engagement.

Objective: To determine the association between item characteristics of board exam-style questions to social media engagement.

Methods: This was a prospective cohort study through the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) PediaLink FaceBook page, conducted in 2018 over 9 months. Items from the 2017 PREP® questions were ranked in difficulty, then rated in relevance to general pediatrics through content-expert consensus. Thirty-six questions were randomly posted on FaceBook and Twitter weekly. Independent variables included item difficulty rank, difficulty level (easy vs hard), relevance to general pediatrics, and word count. Outcome variables included percent correct responses and total comments under the post.

Results: More difficult questions were associated with fewer comments (rho=0.63, p<0.001) and lower correct response percentages (rho=0.39, p=0.02). Easy questions garnered more comments than hard questions (median 18 IQR 13-23 vs median 9.5 IQR 5-14, p=0.001). Correct response percentage was lower for hard questions (90% IQR 85-95% vs. 77% IQR 60-94%, p=0.04). Relevance to general pediatrics and word count did not affect engagement (p > 0.1).

Conclusion: Easier practice test items attracted more responses from pediatricians on social media, increasing engagement.