Background: Youth suicide has become an emerging public health challenge globally. In this study we leveraged the power of social media to better engage the youth population. Aims: We aimed to investigate the impacts of promoting suicide prevention through social media and evaluate the co-creation process of the project with a popular YouTuber in Hong Kong. Method: A YouTube suicide prevention short film was co-produced by the YouTuber and the research team. We examined the co-creation process using thematic analysis, and analyzed the YouTube video statistics and the data collected from the online survey and public comments. Results: The short film brought positive perceived changes in the audience's suicide prevention knowledge, attitude, and behaviors. Three facilitating factors and one challenge of the co-creation process were identified. The short film statistics and demographics of the audience were also extracted and analyzed. Limitations: There was a small sample size and a lack of a control group in this study. Conclusion: Suicide prevention promotion by the YouTuber was promising. This study demonstrates the effectiveness in promoting suicide prevention via social media and provides a framework for future studies to evaluate similar forms of collaborations.
Keywords: YouTube; co-creation; social media; suicide prevention; youth suicide.