Weijs Cynthia, Coe Jason, Desmarais Serge, Majowicz Shannon, Jones-Bitton Andria
Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
Department of Population Medicine, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada.
J Med Internet Res. 2019 Apr 18;21(4):e12024. doi: 10.2196/12024.
There is considerable discussion of risks to health professionals' reputations and employment from personal social media use, though its impacts on professional credibility and the health professional-client relationship are unknown.
The aim of this study was to test the extent to which workday comments posted to health professionals' personal Facebook profiles influence their credibility and affect the professional-client relationship.
In a controlled field study, participants (members of the public) reviewed randomly assigned mock Facebook profiles of health professionals. The 2×2×2 factorial design of mock profiles included gender (female/male), health profession (physician/veterinarian), and workday comment type (evident frustration/ambiguous). Participants then rated the profile owner's credibility on a visual analog scale. An analysis of variance test compared ratings. Mediation analyses tested the importance of credibility ratings on participants' willingness to become a client of the mock health professional.
Participants (N=357) rated health professionals whose personal Facebook profile showed a comment with evident frustration rather than an ambiguous workday comment as less credible (P<.001; mean difference 11.18 [SE 1.28]; 95% CI 8.66 to 13.70). Furthermore, participants indicated they were less likely to become clients of the former when they considered credibility (standardized beta=.69; P<.001). Credibility explained 86% of the variation in the relationship between the type of workday comment and the participant's willingness to become a client of the health professional.
This study provides the first evidence of the impact of health professionals' personal online disclosures on credibility and the health relationship. Public perceptions about professionalism and credibility are integral to developing the evidence base for e-professionalism guidelines and encouraging best practices in social media use.
关于健康专业人员因个人使用社交媒体而对其声誉和就业产生的风险存在大量讨论，但其对专业可信度以及健康专业人员与客户关系的影响尚不清楚。
本研究旨在测试在工作日发布到健康专业人员个人脸书页面上的评论在多大程度上会影响他们的可信度，并影响专业人员与客户的关系。
在一项对照现场研究中，参与者（公众成员）查看了随机分配的健康专业人员的模拟脸书页面。模拟页面的2×2×2析因设计包括性别（女性/男性）、健康专业（医生/兽医）和工作日评论类型（明显的沮丧/模糊不清）。参与者随后在视觉模拟量表上对页面所有者的可信度进行评分。方差分析测试比较评分。中介分析测试了可信度评分对参与者成为模拟健康专业人员客户意愿的重要性。
参与者（N = 357）认为，个人脸书页面显示明显沮丧评论而非模糊工作日评论的健康专业人员可信度较低（P <.001；平均差异11.18 [标准误1.28]；95%置信区间8.66至13.70）。此外，参与者表示，当他们考虑可信度时，他们成为前者客户的可能性较小（标准化β = 0.69；P <.001）。可信度解释了工作日评论类型与参与者成为健康专业人员客户意愿之间关系中86%的变异。
本研究首次证明了健康专业人员个人在线披露对可信度和健康关系的影响。公众对专业性和可信度的看法对于建立电子专业主义指南的证据基础以及鼓励社交媒体使用的最佳实践至关重要。
