Barriers to health information on social media

ABSTRACT

Introduction:

The use of social media for self-management of health information is a recurrent practice for lay users who experience different health contexts. Although social media facilitate information access and sharing, they can contribute to the emergence of possible risks to health and well-being, as they increase emotional vulnerability and misinformation experiences.

Objective:

To discover current evidence impacting the beneficial use of social media for health information purposes; the investigation sought to examine how barriers to health information on social media perceived by lay users are presented in recent empirical research.

Method:

A qualitative exploratory research was carried out through a literature review on the SCOPUS database.

Results:

Although the barriers are multiple and vary according to health contexts and situational motivations, they can be articulated in a mesh composed of the following meta-barriers: diasporic, misinformation, literacy, interaction, and emotional.

Conclusion:

The study concluded that the presented mesh of barriers, associated with other structural barriers, can contribute to the construction of research instruments and digital interventions involving the use of social media for health information purposes.

KEYWORDS:
Health information; Social media; Information practices; Information barriers; Users