Patient Engagement With Urologists on Social Media in a Community Practice.

Background Based on the Boston Area Community Health Survey, 52 million adults in the United States will have lower urinary tract symptoms, urine leakage, painful bladder syndrome, and prostatitis, which may parallel the prevalence of cardiovascular disease. In the year 2000, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) accounted for 117,000 emergency department visits and 105,000 hospitalizations. These numbers underscore the burden of urological conditions and highlight the importance of patient education in preventing unnecessary hospitalizations and emergency department visits. Certain factors that may alter the progression and severity of disease include physical activity and other lifestyle changes. Based on current trends, patient education via social media may be an invaluable tool in limiting the burden on urologists and the healthcare system in the future. Aims This study aims to determine whether patients in a community urology practice would engage with their urologists over social media and if the likelihood to engage was associated with various demographic factors. Furthermore, the likelihood to engage actively (defined as commenting/sharing) versus passively (defined as liking a post) on two different topics within the scope of urology was determined. The two topics used were erectile dysfunction (ED)/urinary incontinence and kidney stone prevention. Methods Participants were recruited from a community urologic clinic in Alabama. During the month of April 2021, 293 participants completed a survey that included basic demographic questions as well as questions with a visual analog 5-point Likert scale. Responses on the Likert scale were given a value of one (very unlikely) to five (very likely), and a two-tailed Mann-Whitney U test with an α of 0.05 was used to determine significance in differences of responses. In the case of ties, the mid-rank method was used to assign ranks. For analysis of the Likert scale responses, only those respondents who had social media accounts were included. Results Overall, respondents were more likely to interact with a post by their urologist passively engage rather than actively. They were also less likely to passively and actively engage on a topic concerning ED/urinary incontinence versus kidney stone prevention. On the topic of kidney stone prevention, respondents were less likely to engage actively than passively. There was no difference in the likelihood of actively or passively engaging on the topic of ED/urinary incontinence. Compared to men, women were more likely to actively and passively engage on social media. On the topic of ED/urinary incontinence, women were more likely than men to actively engage; however, there was no difference in passive engagement. On the topic of kidney stone prevention, women were more likely to actively and passively engage. When looking at the likelihood of engagement based on age, there was no difference in active or passive engagement between those 55 and under or older than 55. This held true when data were stratified by topic. Conclusion Based on these results, the maximum impact of a social media page from a urological practice would be gained by focusing on preventative practices for less sensitive urological conditions. Furthermore, the data suggests that as the population of social media users continues to age, physicians should not expect a change in engagement patterns anytime soon.