Message boards, blogs and social networks could empower more people to change their unhealthy behaviors and better manage chronic conditions like diabetes and obesity if they overcome a few key barriers, a new report claims.
“Social support can augment information to encourage self-reflection, strengthen accountability to achieve goals and ameliorate adverse psychosocial health effects of living with a chronic condition,” the eHealth Initiative writes in a new social media report, funded by the California HealthCare Foundation.
Although the Baby Boomer generation was initially slow to adopt social media, it’s begun to catch up. According to Pew Internet Project’s data, two-thirds of Americans age 50-65, and nearly half of the 65+ population, are using social networking sites.
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The report outlines five specific challenges keeping social media from its full potential in preventing and managing chronic diseases:
- Because social content is often user-generated, its quality, validity and authenticity can be questionable. Efforts to mine social data to produce public health information, then, can lead to inaccurate conclusions. The report calls for professionals to “be better trained with multi-disciplinary skills to bridge the gap between data science and healthcare.”
- Because it’s still relatively new, the models and metrics for social media in healthcare are limited. “Once people reach their goals – for example, losing a certain amount of weight – it can be difficult to achieve sustainable results without a long-term game plan and support community in place,” says Mike Panas, founder of Healthwise Champions, in the report. “Unfortunately, a lot of tools with social components are not built with a multi-faceted vision in mind, and only target individual use for specific purposes on a short-term basis.”
- A digital divide still remains among elderly and minority populations, although smartphone usage is growing. As the divide closes, a new challenge emerges: Misinformation can be spread quickly and easily. “Without appropriate eHealth literacy regarding issues of the veracity and reliability of information found online, social media may encourage users to diagnose and medicate themselves without seeking professional medical input,” the report says.
- Finding a balance between transparency and anonymity is a challenge, as it’s becoming increasingly difficult to navigate privacy and trust online. “What we need to do […] is manage expectations and increase education and transparency about privacy – or lack thereof – on social networks,” said Alice Leiter, policy counsel at Center for Democracy and Technology’s Health Privacy Project, in the report.
- Some healthcare organizations have avoided social media use because of privacy and HIPAA compliance concerns, especially in patient-provider communications. “Because digitized healthcare information is increasingly being used by entities that fall beyond the traditional jurisdiction of HIPAA,” the authors write, “it will behoove newcomers to healthcare from the tech community to identify practical solutions that mitigate potential threats and provide safeguards for dynamic control of information and confidentiality.”
To put together its report, eHealth Initiative attended relevant conferences, read peer-reviewed publications and interviewed 29 industry thought leaders. Read it here.
