Social media in health care: Exploring its use by health-care professionals in Greece

Inform Health Soc Care. 2022 Jan 2;47(1):1-9. doi: 10.1080/17538157.2021.1906256. Epub 2021 Apr 10.

Abstract

The lockdown restrictions that have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic have reshaped the way people live, work, and interact with each other. At the same time, it changed the way health-care professionals and national health-care systems around the world are fighting in this battle for public health. Social media (SoMe) have played their informational role in this fight with almost one-third of the world's population being active users of social media platforms. Contemporary health-care systems have tried to find ways to engage more actively with SoMe as Internet users are increasingly searching for health information on social media platforms. As a result, new demand-side levers arise in the health-care sector along with new opportunities and risks for the stakeholders. Our study looked into the responses of 173 health-care professionals in Greece. SoMe are here to stay and the majority of health-care professionals embrace them in their professional lives. Quality in health information and the work context of Greek health-care professionals in our cohort contribute to attitudes and perceptions of social media use in health care.

Keywords: Internet; Social media; communication; health information; health-care profession; networking.

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19*
  • Communicable Disease Control
  • Delivery of Health Care
  • Greece
  • Humans
  • Pandemics
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Social Media*