Facebook as a Tool for Health Research: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: A lot of researches have been conducted on public health; however few studies have used social media such as Facebook as data source. Objectives: To conduct a systematic review on the use of Facebook in public health research, define a terminology to describe Facebook use and classify the current state of Facebook in health research. Search Methods: Researchers performed a wide literature search in PubMed, Southern University Online Library, Google Scholar and SCOPUS through December 2019. Data Collection and Analysis: Four authors independently screened studies and extracted data related to analysis of Facebook, methodology used to study Facebook and current state of Facebook Research. Main Results: Of the 2506 articles identified in the interim database search, researchers found 727 unique articles. Of these, 103 of these articles met the eligibility criteria (see appendix). Researchers identified ways in which Facebook data were used by other researchers: Network Analysis of Facebook post (16.5%; n=17), Intervention based post (12.6%; n=13), Advertisement (6.8%; n=7), Survey (3%; n=3), Content Analysis (15.5%, n=16), Engagement (7.8%; n=8), Recruitment (29%; n=30), Focus Group (3.9%; n=4; Table 1). Studies that used more than one methodology in studying Facebook was also included. Conclusions: New terminologies was used to describe Facebook’s role in health research with 8 categories. Facebook-based health research is a continuous rapidly growing area funded by numerous funding agencies. Public Health Implications: Future work should concentrate on Communicable and infectious diseases such as COVID-19, Ebola Viral Disease, Lassa Fever, SARS. Secondly issues of privacy and ethical concerns in social media research must be standardized in terms of reporting.