A systematic examination of the use of Online social networking sites for sexual health promotion

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Rachel Sacks-Davis¹  Alisa E Pedrana¹  Judy Gold¹  Mark A Stoove¹  Margaret E Hellard²  Jane S Hocking³  Louise Keogh³  Shanton Chang⁴  Steve Howard⁴ 

[1]Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

[2]Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

[3]Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

[4]Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

[5]The Nossal Institute for Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

[6]Centre for Women's Health, Gender and Society, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

[7]Department of Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

关键词: Social networking sites;    health promotion;    sexual health;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-11-583

 received in 2011-05-09, accepted in 2011-07-21,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIn recent years social networking sites (SNSs) have grown rapidly in popularity. The popularity of these sites, along with their interactive functions, offer a novel environment in which to deliver health promotion messages. The aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which SNSs are currently being used for sexual health promotion and describe the breadth of these activities.MethodsWe conducted a systematic search of published scientific literature, electronic sources (general and scientific search engines, blogs) and SNSs (Facebook, MySpace) to identify existing sexual health promotion activities using SNSs. Health promotion activities were eligible for inclusion if they related to sexual health or behaviour, utilised one or more SNSs, and involved some element of health promotion. Information regarding the source and type of health promotion activity, target population and site activity were extracted.Results178 sexual health promotion activities met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review; only one activity was identified through a traditional systematic search of the published scientific literature. Activities most commonly used one SNS, were conducted by not-for-profit organisations, targeted young people and involved information delivery. Facebook was the most commonly used SNS (used by 71% of all health promotion activities identified), followed by MySpace and Twitter. Seventy nine percent of activities on MySpace were considered inactive as there had been no online posts within the past month, compared to 22% of activities using Facebook and 14% of activities using Twitter. The number of end-users and posts in the last seven days varied greatly between health promotion activities.ConclusionsSNSs are being used for sexual health promotion, although the extent to which they are utilised varies greatly, and the vast majority of activities are unreported in the scientific literature. Future studies should examine the key factors for success among those activities attracting a large and active user base, and how success might be measured, in order to guide the development of future health promotion activities in this emerging setting.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Gold et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011