Abstract
BackgroundSocial media use has become a mainstay of communication and with that comes the exchange of factual and non-factual information. Social media has given many people the opportunity to speak their opinions without repercussions and create coalitionS of like-minded people. This also has led to the development of a community know as anti-vaxxers or vaccine deniers. This research explores the extent to which vaccine knowledge has reached on social media.MethodsThis cross sectional research explored the relationship between the spread of information regarding vaccines in relation to social media use. A sample of 2515 people over the age of 18 around the world completed the survey via a link distributed on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. A series of questions on vaccine knowledge and beliefs were compounded to create an individual’s “knowledge score” and a “belief score”. Knowledge scores were ranked from low knowledge to high knowledge with increasing scores. Belief scores were ranked from belief in myths to disbelief in myths with higher scores. This score was then analysed, using a Welch test and post hoc testing when applicable, across demographics and questions relating to social media use.ResultsSignificant relations were found in both the knowledge and belief categories, many of which were similar findings between the two. North Americans had significantly lower knowledge and belief scores compared to all other continents. While the majority of people primarily use Facebook, Twitter users were significantly more knowledgeable. It was also found that higher education was correlated with higher knowledge and belief scores.ConclusionsOverall, these correlations are important in determining ways to intervene into the anti-vax movement through the use of social media. Cross demographics were not analysed in this study but could be in future studies. To better understand the social media exposures related to vaccine information a follow up structured interview research study would be beneficial. Note that due to the cross sectional nature of this study, causal relationships could not be made.
Highlights
Social media use has become a mainstay of communication and with that comes the exchange of factual and non-factual information
Females accounted for 80.1% of the respondents (n = 1937 people) and males accounted for 18.8% (n = 454 people)
As social media continues to grow exponentially, it can be expected that anti-vaxxers will further spread their messages across these platforms
Summary
Social media use has become a mainstay of communication and with that comes the exchange of factual and non-factual information. Social media has given many people the opportunity to speak their opinions without repercussions and create coalitionS of like-minded people This has led to the development of a community know as anti-vaxxers or vaccine deniers. In notable vaccine objections was when the smallpox vaccine was introduced, “many skeptics [...] found it counterintuitive that deliberately infecting a person with a disease” [38] This is when the world began to see a group of people who refused vaccination but made an effort to inform others of the “dangers” through propaganda. This propaganda largely consisted of arguments of infringement of rights and anti-socialism [15]. This study uses Social media propagation, to reach the study population
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