Today, it is very frequent (and increasingly) to quickly search for any information on social networks and the Internet, especially on issues related to health. This also includes fathers and mothers seeking answers on any aspect of raising their children. Thanks to new technologies, this is possible. But, what opinion do parents have about the presence of pediatricians on social networks? We analyze it below.
What is clear is that the search for information on social networks and the Internet about doubts in child health is increasingly frequent. This highlights the importance of paediatricians, who always try to offer quality information that is easy to understand through these tools.
From the profiles of “Dos Pediatras en Casa” on Twitter and Instagram of the newspaper 20minutos, they published a survey on the opinion of the presence of profiles on social networks of health communicators (especially pediatricians) and what use they made of the information provided by these professionals .
The most important results of this study were the following:
- 96.6% of the participants were women, the majority aged between 30 and 45 years (89%) with 1 or 2 children (55% and 37%, respectively).
- The majority of those surveyed (82%) have used social networks for more than 5 years. The most used is Instagram (90%), followed by Facebook (52%), Twitter (28%) and YouTube (27%). In a lower percentage is TikTok (5% usage).
- One in three respondents acknowledged having used direct messages to resolve medical concerns.
- 99.4% of those surveyed considered it positive that there are paediatricians disseminating through these channels.
- Confidence in publications, for 41%, are more credible if they are endorsed by scientific societies.
- 82% of the people who took the survey responded that they contrasted this information with their regular pediatrician.
Health professionals should not avoid its use
With these data, it can be considered that social networks are a tool with a very significant percentage of use by parents, to learn about child health issues. So it is a mistake that health professionals do not use them and pretend that they do not exist.