Parents' Opinions About Pediatric Otolaryngology on Social Media.

OBJECTIVE

Social media is a novel tool that many parents turn to when looking for a new healthcare provider. The purpose of this study is to assess how parents of children attending a pediatric otolaryngology practice engage with social media.

STUDY DESIGN

Survey.

SETTING

Two pediatric otolaryngology clinics associated with a tertiary care children's hospital in Buffalo, NY.

METHODS

Parents of children aged <18 years were surveyed. The survey consisted of 25 questions divided into 5 categories: demographics, social media accounts, social media use, use of social media to interact with pediatric otolaryngologists, and perception of pediatric otolaryngologists' social media accounts. Frequencies were calculated.

RESULTS

Three hundred five parent participants were included. 247 (81.0) were female and 57 (18.97) were male. 258 (84.6%) of the participants reported use of Facebook, which was the most popular social media platform. 238 (78.0%) of participants indicated that they would want to see medical posts and 98 (32.1%) participants indicated that they would want to see personal posts on the pediatric otolaryngologist's social media page. Younger parents were statistically more likely to check social media more often ( = .001) and seek a pediatric otolaryngologist's social media before seeing them ( = .018).

CONCLUSION

Use of social media by pediatric otolaryngologists may positively impact the way a small percentage of their patients' parents perceive them. Social media accounts do not appear to be a vital part of pediatric otolaryngology practice in 2022.