Social media used as a health intervention in adolescent health: A systematic review of the literature.

OBJECTIVE: Adolescents are known to be high users of social media, and social media is beginning to be used in health care. The primary objective of this review was to determine the current state of play on the use of social media as a health intervention in addressing the health of adolescents. METHODS: Six databases were searched: CINAHL, Medline, Scopus, ProQuest, Psych Info and Science Direct, from 2000-2013. The review process followed PRISMA guidelines with quality assessments of the selected articles undertaken. RESULTS: Three studies used social media as a health intervention in adolescent health. Facebook was the social media of choice. The way this social media tool was incorporated as the intervention varied. None of the social media interventions had a significant or sustained impact on the primary outcomes of the studies reviewed. Measures of social media process were limited and lacked meaning. CONCLUSIONS: The selected papers provided insight into the beginning phase of using social media as a health intervention to address adolescent health. The review highlights three important areas for consideration when undertaking research on the use of social media as a health intervention for adolescents: the newness of using social media as a health intervention, the importance of the use of rigorous methodological processes when using social media as a health intervention, and the need to develop further knowledge on adolescents' use of social media, in particular their hidden world of social media.

The phenomenon of taking life day-by-day: using Parse's research method.

Parse's research method informed the exploration of the phenomenon of taking life day-by-day as viewed through the conceptual lens of the human becoming theory. From the perspective of human becoming, taking life day-by-day is a universal lived experience of health and quality of life. The participants in this study were 10 men between 35 and 60 years who had experienced depression and were willing to share their lived world of taking life day-by-day. Three core concepts were explicated from the participants' dialogues, enduring with the burdensome, envisioning the possibles, and sure-unsure. The findings of this study represent a tapestry of the participants' experiences woven with the human becoming theory, this researcher's engagement with an exacting process of inquiry, and his personal journey into the landscape of the human becoming school of thought.

The researcher's reflections on the research process.

From this researcher's perspective an essential component of rigorous inquiry is the ability of the researcher to provide a transparent accounting of his/her journey throughout the research process. In keeping with this belief this researcher's personal reflections of, and insights gleaned from, his experience into the world of research in general, and the human becoming school of thought in particular, are presented. He offers personal insights into the lived experience of completing a Parsean study on the structure of taking life day-by-day as a universal lived experience of health. Throughout this research process a number of insights have been gleaned which include the importance of adequate preparation in conducting research, the role of the researcher, preparedness to work with uncertainty, and achieving authentic rigor.