Young adults’ experiences of social media usage for health-related information

Abstract

The use of social media for health-related information has increased among young adults. Extant literature supports the notion that young adults use the health information obtained to guide their health-related behaviours. Despite that the South African healthcare system is viewed as inadequate, the lower socio-economic groups are reliant on the under-resourced public healthcare sector. Social media can be a valuable tool to disseminate health-related information to people with limited access to orthodox healthcare. For social media to be used as a healthcare tool it is necessary to explore how it can be applied to access health-related information. There is limited research on how young adults use social media to access and disseminate health information. The aim of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of how young adults use social media to find health-related information and how the information is used to guide their health-related behaviours. Based on an interpretive phenomenological design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven young adults (aged 18 to 25 years) who were purposively sampled from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The data was transcribed verbatim and analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA), which yielded four dominant themes and nine subthemes. The findings highlight the diverse and widespread use of social media for health-related information among the participants. The study concludes that social media can be a useful tool in disseminating and guiding young adults to engage in desirable health-related behaviours. It is recommended that young adults need digital health literacy programmes to determine the credibility and value of different kinds of health information posted on social media platforms.