Lyson Helena C, Le Gem M, Zhang Jingwen, Rivadeneira Natalie, Lyles Courtney, Radcliffe Kate, Pasick Rena J, Sawaya George, Sarkar Urmimala, Centola Damon
Center for Vulnerable Populations, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Department of Communication, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
J Cancer Educ. 2019 Aug;34(4):819-822. doi: 10.1007/s13187-018-1379-8.
Online social media platforms represent a promising opportunity for public health promotion. Research is limited, however, on the effectiveness of social media at improving knowledge and awareness of health topics and motivating healthy behavior change. Therefore, we investigated whether participation in an online social media platform and receipt of brief, tailored messages is effective at increasing knowledge, awareness, and prevention behaviors related to human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer. We conducted an online study in which 782 recruited participants were consecutively assigned to nine-person groups on a social media platform. Participants were shown a unique random set of 20 tailored messages per day over five days. Participants completed a baseline and post survey to assess their knowledge, awareness, and prevention behaviors related to HPV and cervical cancer. There were no statistically significant changes in knowledge and prevention behaviors from the baseline to the post survey among study participants. There was a modest, statistically significant change in response to whether participants had ever heard of HPV, increasing from 90 to 94% (p = 0.003). Our findings suggest that most study participants had substantial knowledge, awareness, and engagement in positive behaviors related to cervical cancer prevention at the start of the study. Nevertheless, we found that HPV awareness can be increased through brief participation in an online social media platform and receipt of tailored health messages. Further investigation that explores how social media can be used to improve knowledge and adoption of healthy behaviors related to cervical cancer is warranted.
在线社交媒体平台为促进公众健康提供了一个充满希望的契机。然而，关于社交媒体在提高健康话题的知识和认知以及激发健康行为改变方面的有效性，研究有限。因此，我们调查了参与在线社交媒体平台并接收简短、个性化信息是否能有效提高与人类乳头瘤病毒（HPV）和宫颈癌相关的知识、认知及预防行为。我们开展了一项在线研究，将782名招募的参与者在一个社交媒体平台上连续分配到九人小组。参与者在五天内每天会看到一组独特的20条个性化信息。参与者完成了一项基线调查和一项后续调查，以评估他们与HPV和宫颈癌相关的知识、认知及预防行为。在研究参与者中，从基线调查到后续调查，知识和预防行为没有统计学上的显著变化。在参与者是否听说过HPV这一问题上有适度的、统计学上显著的变化，从90%增至94%（p = 0.003）。我们的研究结果表明，大多数研究参与者在研究开始时就对与宫颈癌预防相关的知识、认知及积极行为有充分了解。尽管如此，我们发现通过短暂参与在线社交媒体平台并接收个性化健康信息，可以提高对HPV的认知。有必要进一步研究如何利用社交媒体来提高与宫颈癌相关的知识以及健康行为的采用率。
