Department of Oncology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
PLoS One. 2021 Jan 14;16(1):e0245483. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245483. eCollection 2021.
To combat social distancing and stay-at-home restrictions due to COVID-19, Canadian communities began a Facebook social media movement, #Caremongering, to support vulnerable individuals in their communities. Little research has examined the spread and use of #Caremongering to address community health and social needs.
We examined the rate at which #Caremongering grew across Canada, the main ways the groups were used, and differences in use by membership size and activity.
We searched Facebook Groups using the term "Caremongering" combined with the names of the largest population centres in every province and territory in Canada. We extracted available Facebook analytics on all the groups found, restricted to public groups that operated in English. We further conducted a content analysis of themes from postings in 30 groups using purposive sampling. Posted content was qualitatively analyzed to determine consistent themes across the groups and between those with smaller and larger member numbers.
The search of Facebook groups across 185 cities yielded 130 unique groups, including groups from all 13 provinces and territories in Canada. Total membership across all groups as of May 4, 2020 was 194,879. The vast majority were formed within days of the global pandemic announcement, two months prior. There were four major themes identified: personal protective equipment, offer, need, and information. Few differences were found between how large and small groups were being used.
The #Caremongering Facebook groups spread across the entire nation in a matter of days, engaging hundreds of thousands of Canadians. Social media appears to be a useful tool for spreading community-led solutions to address health and social needs.
为应对 COVID-19 导致的社交疏离和居家限制，加拿大社区发起了一场 Facebook 社交媒体运动#关爱互助，以支持社区中的弱势群体。鲜有研究调查过#关爱互助在解决社区健康和社会需求方面的传播和使用情况。
我们考察了#关爱互助在加拿大的传播速度、主要使用方式，以及按成员规模和活跃度划分的使用差异。
我们使用“关爱互助”和加拿大每个省和地区最大人口中心的名称组合，在 Facebook 群组中进行搜索。我们提取了所有发现的群组的可用 Facebook 分析数据，仅限于以英文运营的公开群组。我们进一步对 30 个群组的主题进行了内容分析，采用目的性抽样。对发布内容进行了定性分析，以确定各群组以及成员数量较少和较多的群组之间的一致主题。
对 185 个城市的 Facebook 群组进行搜索，共产生 130 个独特群组，包括加拿大所有 13 个省和地区的群组。截至 2020 年 5 月 4 日，所有群组的总成员数为 194879 人。绝大多数群组是在全球大流行宣布后的几天内成立的，也就是两个月前。确定了四个主要主题：个人防护设备、提供、需求和信息。在大小群组的使用方式上，几乎没有发现差异。
#关爱互助 Facebook 群组在数天内传遍全国，吸引了数十万加拿大人参与。社交媒体似乎是传播社区主导解决方案以解决健康和社会需求的有用工具。
