Abstract
Health organizations have widely adopted social media for health promotion, public health communication conveyance, and organizational promotion activities. However, little published data exists on the factors that facilitate health information diffusion in South East Asia, especially Malaysia compared with Western countries. This study aimed to investigate factors associated with good engagement rates among internet users on the Facebook (FB) page of Ministry of Health Malaysia. In this observational study, 2123 FB posts were randomly selected. Data dated from 1 November 2016 to 31 October 2017 was gathered from the Facebook Insight. The logistic regression model was applied to identify factors associated with good engagement rates. This study found that a FB post with a good engagement rate was significantly associated with a health education post (Adjusted Odd Ratio (AOR): 3.80, 95% Confidence Interval CI: 3.02–4.78, p < 0.001), a risk communication post (AOR: 1.77, 95% CI: 1.39–2.26, p < 0.001), a post in the afternoon (AOR: 1.76, 95% CI: 1.34–2.31, p < 0.001) or in the evening (AOR: 1.48, 95% CI: 1.20–1.82, p < 0.001), and a video format (AOR: 3.74, 95% CI: 1.44–9.71, p = 0.007). Therefore, we present the first comprehensive analysis of health information engagement among internet users in Malaysia. The growing trends of online health information-seeking behaviors and demand for the availability of validated health information require effective strategies by public health organizations to disseminate health information and achieve better audience engagement on social media.
Highlights
Social media are a collection of digital channels and tools (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Sina Weibo, and YouTube) used increasingly for public health communication [1]
Most of the FB posts were posted during weekdays (n = 1669, 78.6%), and the remaining posts were posted during weekends (n = 454, 21.4%)
The coefficients of the logistic regression in our model indicate how the factors relate to good engagement rates
Summary
Social media are a collection of digital channels and tools (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Sina Weibo, and YouTube) used increasingly for public health communication [1]. Facebook, are widely utilized by health organizations worldwide and are fast becoming principal instruments of alternative communication channels to deliver health messages, conduct disease surveillance, spread health awareness, and address public health issues to the public [2,3,4,5]. Facebook (FB) has emerged as a powerful platform with several advantages compared with more traditional communication channels, as it has proven to be a cost-effective tool for the dissemination of health messages, capable of reaching hidden minorities for better public health interventions [6,7,8]. Public Health 2019, 16, 591; doi:10.3390/ijerph16040591 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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