UC Merced Ph.D. student Holly Rus will present the results of a study on social media and health communications this week during the 36th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in San Antonio, Texas.
Working with Professor Linda Cameron, Rus conducted an analysis of more than 500 posts by diabetes-related support pages on Facebook. The researchers looked for attributes in posts that could be used to predict not just overall user engagement, but specific types of engagement.
Among the study’s findings:
- Posts with images had more than four times as many likes and 11 times as many shares as those without.
- Messages of support or encouragement and posts soliciting input both had more than twice as many comments as those without.
- Emotionally positive posts — including hope, optimism, humor, happiness, benefit finding and gratitude — did not predict any particular engagement, while negative ones generated a roughly threefold increase in comments.
- Posts about the possible effects of diabetes generated more than twice as many shares as those without, while the use of external links predicted fewer likes and shares.
It’s clear that social media has the potential to be a significant resource for health communicators and for patients and their supporters. Rus said her study is a step toward a better understanding of how to make this growing form of health communication more effective.
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