European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

EVALUATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A SOURCE OF HEALTH INFORMATION AMONG MALE STUDENTS AT TAIF UNIVERSITY

Dr. Raed Mohammed Alfaran*, MBBS and Dr. Hani Abozaid, MBBS, SBFM, ABFM

ABSTRACT

Background: To improve young people's access to health information sources, new strategies that are attractive to them are beginning to emerge, and they make use of the power, creativity, and enthusiasm of this population. Objectives: To evaluate and address factors associated with online health information-seeking behaviors among male students at Taif University to reduce health disparities. Methods: This research was carried at Taif University; Saudi Arabia included a representative sample of regular attending male students in the academic year 2015-2016. A self-administered validated questionnaire was used for data collection. It includes demographic data, source of health information, evaluation of the quality of health information, and difficulties in obtaining health information from the Internet. Results: Out of 367 students targeted to be included in the study, 358 returned the completed questionnaire with a response rate of 97.5%. Their age ranged between 19 and 25 years with a mean of 20.8 and SD of 1.2 years. All were Saudis. Almost half of them (51.4%) were recruited from the college of Administration and Finance, and the remaining (48.6%) were recruited from the College of Pharmacy. Internet was the most reported source of health information (85.5%), followed by mass media (TV and Radio) (43%) and medical staff (41.3%). The least reported source was medical books (16%). Medical care staff ranked first (34.1%), followed by the Internet (30.1%) as the most trustful health information sources. Regarding reasons for searching medical information on Internet, saving time (74.7%), ease use (72.4%), updating information (42.4%) and lower cost (41.2%) were the commonest reported. General sites (google, yahoo) were the most frequent searched sited to get health information (70%), followed by specific medical sites (62.9%), Twitter (43.5%) and Instagram (23.5%). Conclusion: Internet/social media are commonly used and trusted source of health information among male university students in Taif. Thus the accuracy of the data should be ascertained, and health care providers should explore ways of communicating online with a young population.

Keywords: To improve young people's access to health information sources, a young population.