"Ask a Doctor About Coronavirus": How Physicians on Social Media Can Provide Valid Health Information During a Pandemic.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the information stream has overflowed with accurate information, misinformation, and constantly changing guidelines. There is a great need for guidance on the identification of trustworthy health information, and official channels are struggling to keep pace with this infodemic. Consequently, a Facebook group was created where volunteer medical physicians would answer laypeople's questions about the 2019 novel coronavirus. There is not much precedence in health care professional-driven Facebook groups, and the framework was thus developed continuously. We ended up with an approach without room for debate, which fostered a sense of calmness, trust, and safety among the questioners. Substantial moderator effort was needed to ensure high quality and consistency through collaboration among the presently >200 physicians participating in this group. At the time of writing, the group provides a much-needed service to >58,000 people in Denmark during this crisis.

Knowledge Exchange and Discovery in the Age of Social Media: The Journey From Inception to Establishment of a Parent-Led Web-Based Research Advisory Community for Childhood Disability.

BACKGROUND: Efforts to involve parents and families in all aspects of research, from initiating the question through to dissemination and knowledge exchange, are increasing. While social media as a method for health communication has shown numerous benefits, including increasing accessibility, interactions with others, and access to health care information, little work has been published on the use of social media to enhance research partnerships. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to describe the development and evaluation of a Web-based research advisory community, hosted on Facebook and connecting a diverse group of parents of special needs children with researchers at CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research. The goal of this community is to work together and exchange knowledge in order to improve research and the lives of children and their families. METHODS: The Web-based Parents Participating in Research (PPR) advisory community was a secret Facebook group launched in June 2014 and run by 2 parent moderators who worked in consultation with CanChild. We evaluated its success using Facebook statistics of engagement and activity (eg, number of posts, number of comments) between June 2014 and April 2015, and a Web-based survey of members. RESULTS: The PPR community had 96 participants (2 parent moderators, 13 researchers, and 81 family members) as of April 1, 2015. Over 9 months, 432 original posts were made: 155 (35.9%) by moderators, 197 (45.6%) by parents, and 80 (18.5%) by researchers. Posts had a median of 3 likes (range 0-24) and 4 comments (range 0-113). Members, rather than moderators, generated 64% (277/432) of posts. The survey had a 51% response rate (49/96 members), with 40 (82%) being parent members and 9 (18%) being researchers. The initial purpose of the group was to be an advisory to CanChild, and 76% (28/37) of parents and all the researchers (9/9) identified having an impact on childhood disability research as their reason for participating. A total of 58% (23/40) of parents and 56% (5/9) of researchers indicated they felt safe to share sensitive or personal information. While researchers shared evidence-based resources and consulted with families to get guidance on specific issues, there was an unexpected benefit of gaining an understanding of what issues were important to families in their daily lives. Parents felt a sense of belonging to this community where they could share their stories but also wanted more researcher participation and clarity on the purpose of the group. CONCLUSIONS: The PPR community grew from inception to an established community with active engagement and knowledge exchange. Both parents and researchers described valuable experiences. Researchers should consider social media as a means of engaging families in all phases of research to ensure that research and its outcomes are meaningful to those who need it most.

Health Promotion in Popular Web-Based Community Games Among Young People: Proposals, Recommendations, and Applications.

BACKGROUND: Young people use digital technology on a daily basis and enjoy web-based games that promote social interactions among peers. These interactions in web-based communities can develop social knowledge and life skills. Intervening via existing web-based community games represents an innovative opportunity for health promotion interventions. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to collect and describe players' proposals for delivering health promotion through existing web-based community games among young people, elaborate on related recommendations adapted from a concrete experience of intervention research, and describe the application of these recommendations in new interventions. METHODS: We implemented a health promotion and prevention intervention via a web-based community game (Habbo; Sulake Oy). During the implementation of the intervention, we conducted an observational qualitative study on young people's proposals via an intercept web-based focus group. We asked 22 young participants (3 groups in total) for their proposals about the best ways to carry out a health intervention in this context. First, using verbatim transcriptions of the players' proposals, we conducted a qualitative thematic analysis. Second, we elaborated on recommendations for action development and implementation based on our experiences and work with a multidisciplinary consortium of experts. Third, we applied these recommendations in new interventions and described their application. RESULTS: A thematic analysis of the participants' proposals revealed 3 main themes and 14 subthemes related to their proposals and process elements: the conditions for developing an attractive intervention within a game, the value of involving peers in developing the intervention, and the ways to mobilize and monitor gamers' participation. These proposals emphasized the importance of interventions involving and moderating a small group of players in a playful manner but with professional aspects. We established 16 domains with 27 recommendations for preparing an intervention and implementing it in web-based games by adopting the codes of game culture. The application of the recommendations showed their usefulness and that it was possible to make adapted and diverse interventions in the game. CONCLUSIONS: Integrated health promotion interventions in existing web-based community games have the potential for promoting the health and well-being of young people. There is a need to incorporate specific key aspects of the games and gaming community recommendations, from conception to implementation, to maximize the relevance, acceptability, and feasibility of the interventions integrated in current digital practices. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04888208; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04888208.

Leveraging the Black Girls Run Web-Based Community as a Supportive Community for Physical Activity Engagement: Mixed Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: About 59%-73% of Black women do not meet the recommended targets for physical activity (PA). PA is a key modifiable lifestyle factor that can help mitigate risk for chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension that disproportionately affect Black women. Web-based communities focused on PA have been emerging in recent years as web-based gathering spaces to provide support for PA in specific populations. One example is Black Girls Run (BGR), which is devoted to promoting PA in Black women. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to describe the content shared on the BGR public Facebook page to provide insight into how web-based communities engage Black women in PA and inform the development of web-based PA interventions for Black women. METHODS: Using Facebook Crowdtangle, we collected posts (n=397) and associated engagement data from the BGR public Facebook page for the 6-month period between June 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021. We pooled data in Dedoose to analyze the qualitative data and conducted a content analysis of qualitative data. We quantified types of posts, post engagement, and compared post types on engagement: "like," "love," "haha," "wow," "care," "sad," "angry," "comments," and "shares." RESULTS: The content analysis revealed 8 categories of posts: shout-outs to members for achievements (n=122, 31%), goals or motivational (n=65, 16%), announcements (n=63, 16%), sponsored or ads (n=54, 14%), health related (n=47, 11%), the lived Black experience (n=23, 6%), self-care (n=15, 4%), and holidays or greetings (n=8, 2%). The 397 posts attracted a total of 55,354 engagements (reactions, comments, and shares). Associations between the number of engagement and post categories were analyzed using generalized linear models. Shout-out posts (n=22,268) elicited the highest average of total user engagement of 181.7 (SD 116.7), followed by goals or motivational posts (n=11,490) with an average total engagement of 160.1 (SD 125.2) and announcements (n=7962) having an average total engagement of 129.9 (SD 170.7). Significant statistical differences were found among the total engagement of posts (χ72=80.99, P<.001), "like" (χ72=119.37, P<.001), "love" (χ72=63.995, P<.001), "wow" (χ72=23.73, P<.001), "care" (χ72=35.06, P<.001), "comments" (χ72=80.55, P<.001), and "shares" (χ72=71.28, P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: The majority of content on the BGR Facebook page (n=250, 63%) was focused on celebrating member achievements, motivating members to get active, and announcing and promoting active events. These types of posts attracted 75% of total post engagement. BGR appears to be a rich web-based community that offers social support for PA as well as culturally relevant health and social justice content. Web-based communities may be uniquely positioned to engage minoritized populations in health behavior. Further research should explore how and if web-based communities such as BGR can be interwoven into health interventions and health promotion.