Using Social Media Engagement to Raise Pre-Diabetes Awareness for Rural Idaho Hispanics or Latinos

Abstract

Background: Pre-diabetes is a condition that usually has no symptoms, which can lead to decreased awareness of its presence. Like other chronic diseases, pre-diabetes disproportionately affects Hispanic/Latinos populations and places them at greater risk for severe consequences. Latinos are not fully aware of what pre-diabetes is or how it differs from diabetes. This represents a healthcare disparity that requires engagement with the Latino population to address it. Complications of diabetes could be dramatically reduced by increasing awareness of pre-diabetes through engagement with Latinos, health care providers, and pre-diabetes awareness for Latinos. Objective: The purpose of this study was to understand how effective the use of a targeted social media campaign could increase awareness of prediabetes. Design and sample: A two-week long Facebook campaign was conducted with four ads targeted to Idahoans aged 18 plus. These messages involved awareness of prediabetes. The amount of engagement was tracked including shares, reactions, and views. Paid boosts were used to evaluate the natural reach of the messages versus reach with a paid boost. Results: Combined reach of all four posts was 36,578. Organic reach was 7,416 or 20.2% of views while paid reach comprised 29,162 or 79.7% of views. Total reactions totaled 627 with 538 or 85.8% being “like.” The second highest reaction was sad with 37 or 6.7%; all the sad reactions were limited to post one and post three. Conclusion: Use of Facebook appears appropriate to reach individuals with health-related messages, though it is clear that the use of paid boosts improves reach.