Social Media to Improve Health Promotion and Health Literacy for Patients Engagement

Abstract

Citizens have limited access to relevant health informations very often, they have sometimes limited ability to understand complex health terminology and instructions and to make personal decisions. Health care organizations are realizing this. In this context, social media have considerable potential as tools for health promotion and education. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how this platform can improve the health promotion and literacy, engaging patients in the process of their health care and treatment. In order to understand how healthcare organizations are adopting social media technologies to address the challenges they face, the paper presents the results of a content analysis of comments, information and videos posted on the Facebook pages of an Italian healthcare organization. This paper suggests that social media platform can play an important role in health promotion and engaging citizens in health management.