Social Media for Public Health: An Exploratory Policy Analysis

Background: To accomplish the aims of public health practice and policy today, new forms of communication and education are being applied. Social media are increasingly relevant for public health and used by various actors. Apart from benefits, there can also be risks in using social media, but policies regulating engagement in social media is not well researched. This study examined European public health-related organizations' social media policies and describes the main components of existing policies. Methods: This research used a mixed methods approach. A content analysis of social media policies from European institutions, non-government organizations (NGOs) and social media platforms was conducted. Next, individuals responsible for social media in their organization or projects completed a survey about their social media policy. Results: Seventy-five per cent of institutions, NGOs and platforms had a social media policy available. The primary aspects covered within existing policies included data and privacy protection, intellectual property and copyright protection and regulations for the engagement in social media. Policies were intended to regulate staff use, to secure the liability of the institution and social responsibility. Respondents also stressed the importance of self-responsibility when using social media. Conclusions: This study of social media policies for public health in Europe provides a first snapshot of the existence and characteristics of social media policies among European health organizations. Policies tended to focus on legal aspects, rather than the health of the social media user. The effect of such policies on social media adoption and usage behaviour remains to be examine

Reasons for participating and not participating in a e-health workplace physical activity intervention

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons for participating and not participating in an e-health workplace physical activity (PA) intervention. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews and two focus groups were conducted with a purposive sample of employees who enrolled and participated in the intervention and with those who did not complete enrolment, hence did not participate in it. Data were examined using thematic analysis according to the clusters of “reasons for participation” and for “non-participation”. Findings – Reported reasons for participation included a need to be more active, to increase motivation to engage in PA, and to better manage weight. Employees were attracted by the perceived ease of use of the programme and by the promise of receiving reminders. Many felt encouraged to enrol by managers or peers. Reported reasons for non-participation included lack of time, loss of interest towards the programme, or a lack of reminders to complete enrolment. Practical implications – Future e-health workplace behavioural interventions should consider focusing on employees’ needs and motivators to behaviour change, provide regular reminders for participants to complete enrolment and ensure that procedures are completed successfully. Barriers to participation could be identified through formative research with the target population and feasibility studies. Originality/value – This study combines a qualitative analysis of the reasons why some employees decided to enrol in a workplace PA intervention and why some others did not. This study highlights factors to consider when designing, implementing and promoting similar interventions and that could inform strategies to enhance participation in workplace PA interventions

Active8! Technology-based intervention to promote physical activity in hospital employees

Purpose: Increase physical activity in healthcare employees using health messaging, and compare email with mobile phone short-message service (SMS) as delivery channels. Design: Randomised controlled trial Setting: UK hospital workplace Subjects: 296 employees (19-67 years, 53% of study website visitors) Intervention: 12-week messaging intervention designed to increase physical activity and delivered via SMS (n=147) or email (n=149); content tailored using Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and limited to 160 characters. Measures: Baseline, 6, 12 and 16 weeks. Online measures included TPB constructs; physical activity behaviour on the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire; health-related quality of life on the Short-Form 12. Analysis: General linear models for repeated measures. Results: Increase in duration (mean hours/day) of moderate work-related activity and moderate recreational activity from baseline to 16 weeks. Short-lived increase in frequency (days/week) of vigorous recreational activity from baseline to 6 weeks. Increase in duration and frequency of active travel from baseline to 16 weeks. Emails generated greater changes than SMS in active travel and moderate activity (work and recreational). Conclusion: Minimal physical activity promotion delivered by SMS or email can increase frequency and duration of active travel, and duration of moderate-intensity physical activity at work and for leisure, which is maintained up to one-month after messaging ends. Both channels were useful platforms for health communication; emails were particularly beneficial with hospital employees

Tick-Talk: Parental online discourse about TBE vaccination

This study aimed to understand parental discourse about vaccination, and to provide guidance for communication that addresses the needs of parents. We analyzed parental discourse on child vaccination in general and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) specifically in a Swiss parental online community. For this purpose, a data set containing 105k posts written by parents between 2007 and 2019 was analyzed using a combination of linguistic discourse analysis and qualitative content analysis. Results show that parents enter into a multidimensional decision-making process, characterized by elaborate practices of negotiation, consideration of vaccination recommendations as well as six distinct influencing thematic factors (vaccination safety, development and control, effectiveness, epidemiology, necessity, alternatives or additional prevention methods). The study shows a clear pattern of seasonality, with parents talking about TBE vaccination mostly triggered by events such as tick bites in spring and summer. From a public health perspective, the study emphasizes the need for sufficient, balanced, and tailored information about TBE vaccination. Online forums provide valuable information about what matters to parents and when, which can help public health authorities and practitioners provide information according to these concerns and enhance health literacy among parents

Family Physician attitudes about prescribing using a drug formulary

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Drug formularies have been created by third party payers to control prescription drug usage and manage costs. Physicians try to provide the best care for their patients. This research examines family physicians' attitudes regarding prescription reimbursement criteria, prescribing and advocacy for patients experiencing reimbursement barriers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Focus groups were used to collect qualitative data on family physicians' prescribing decisions related to drug reimbursement guidelines. Forty-eight family physicians from four Ontario cities participated. Ethics approval for this study was received from the Hamilton Health Sciences/Faculty of Health Sciences Research Ethics Board at McMaster University. Four clinical scenarios were used to situate and initiate focus group discussions about prescribing decisions. Open-ended questions were used to probe physicians' experiences and attitudes and responses were audio recorded. NVivo software was used to assist in data analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Most physicians reported that drug reimbursement guidelines complicated their prescribing process and can require lengthy interpretation and advocacy for patients who require medication that is subject to reimbursement restrictions.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Physicians do not generally see their role as being cost-containment monitors and observed that cumbersome reimbursement guidelines influence medication choice beyond the clinical needs of the patient, and produce unequal access to medication. They observed that frustration, discouragement, fatigue, and lack of appreciation can often contribute to family physicians' failure to advocate more for patients. Physicians argue cumbersome reimbursement regulations contribute to lower quality care and misuse of physicians' time increasing overall health care costs by adding unnecessary visits to family physicians, specialists, and emergency rooms.</p

Food Perceptions and Dietary Changes for Chronic Condition Management in Rural Peru: Insights for Health Promotion.

Peru is undergoing a nutrition transition and, at the country level, it faces a double burden of disease where several different conditions require dietary changes to maintain a healthy life and prevent complications. Through semistructured interviews in rural Peru with people affected by three infectious and noninfectious chronic conditions (type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and neurocysticercosis), their relatives, and focus group discussions with community members, we analyzed their perspectives on the value of food and the challenges of dietary changes due to medical diagnosis. The findings show the various ways in which people from rural northern Peru conceptualize good (buena alimentación) and bad (mala alimentación) food, and that food choices are based on life-long learning, experience, exposure, and availability. In the context of poverty, required changes are not only related to what people recognize as healthy food, such as fruits and vegetables, but also of work, family, trust, taste, as well as affordability and accessibility of foods. In this paper we discuss the complexity of introducing dietary changes in poor rural communities whose perspectives on food are poorly understood and rarely taken into consideration by health professionals when promoting behavior change