Sivaramakrishnan Gowri, AbdulAmeer Fatema, Faisal Fatema, Mansoor Zainab, Hasan Sawsan, Ebrahim Shagra, AlSalihi Leena, Alsobaiei Muneera
Dental Postgraduate Training Department, Ministry of Health, Manama, Bahrain.
Healthc Inform Res. 2023 Jan;29(1):31-39. doi: 10.4258/hir.2023.29.1.31. Epub 2023 Jan 31.
Healthcare-related information sharing via social media is on the rise following the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Dental practices primarily use social media to search, share, and communicate health-related information. Considering the increasing trend of using social media, the primary aim of the present study was to identify the use of social media by dentists and laypeople to post and view dentistry-related content in Bahrain.
This questionnaire-based cross-sectional study included adult participants and dentists. A pretested validated questionnaire was administered. The chi-square test for association was used to assess the association between categorical outcomes. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
In total, 249 adult participants and 53 dentists were included. A substantial majority (83.5%) of the participants reported that they always used social media to view dentistry-related content, and 69.8% of the dentists felt that patients who use social media have better oral health awareness. A longer duration of social media usage showed significant associations with particularly viewing dentistry-related content (p = 0.008) and contacting dentists directly through social media for consultation (p = 0.055).
An extremely high percentage of the younger population in Bahrain is using various social media to discuss dentistry. This engagement should be wisely managed to promote dentistry-related information sharing, which can lead to increased awareness related to overall dental health. There is a definite need to enforce certain standard operating procedures in every country that will prevent the misuse of this technological advancement.
2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行后，通过社交媒体进行的医疗保健相关信息共享呈上升趋势。牙科诊所主要利用社交媒体搜索、分享和交流健康相关信息。鉴于使用社交媒体的趋势不断增加，本研究的主要目的是确定巴林的牙医和普通民众使用社交媒体发布和查看牙科相关内容的情况。
这项基于问卷调查的横断面研究纳入了成年参与者和牙医。采用了经过预测试验证的问卷。使用卡方关联检验来评估分类结果之间的关联。p值≤0.05被认为具有统计学意义。
总共纳入了249名成年参与者和53名牙医。绝大多数（83.5%）参与者报告称他们总是使用社交媒体查看牙科相关内容，69.8%的牙医认为使用社交媒体的患者有更好的口腔健康意识。社交媒体使用时间较长与特别查看牙科相关内容（p = 0.008）以及通过社交媒体直接联系牙医进行咨询（p = 0.055）显示出显著关联。
巴林有极高比例的年轻人群体使用各种社交媒体讨论牙科问题。这种参与应得到明智管理，以促进牙科相关信息共享，从而提高对整体口腔健康的认识。每个国家都确实需要实施某些标准操作程序，以防止滥用这一技术进步。
