TY - GEN
T1 - The role of social media in promoting women's health education in Saudi Arabia
AU - Bahkali, Salwa
AU - Almaiman, Ahmad
AU - Bahkali, Ahlam
AU - Almaiman, Sara
AU - Househ, Mowafa
AU - Alsurimi, Khaled
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Social media has the potential to improve women's health in developing countries through health education and promotion. In the Arab world, women's health interventions are lacking. However, with a high penetration rate of social media in the Arab world, there is good opportunity to utilize social media platforms such as Twitter to promote women's health. In this paper, we analyze the Tweet feeds of Saudi-based Twitter account to promote women's health. A total of 5167 Tweets were extracted and analyzed retrospectively, using NVivo Ncapture between June 2014 and March 2015. There were a total number of 3449 followers by March 20, 2015. Results showed that a majority of the Twitter followers (61%, n=2104) were seeking gynecological information, followed by pregnancy related information (27%, n=931), breast-feeding advice (9%, n=310), and other health related information (3%, n=103). Results also showed an increased level of health awareness and comprehension among Twitter followers. Further research is needed to promote women's health in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world through social media platforms such as Twitter and similar platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube which are also popular in the Arab world.
AB - Social media has the potential to improve women's health in developing countries through health education and promotion. In the Arab world, women's health interventions are lacking. However, with a high penetration rate of social media in the Arab world, there is good opportunity to utilize social media platforms such as Twitter to promote women's health. In this paper, we analyze the Tweet feeds of Saudi-based Twitter account to promote women's health. A total of 5167 Tweets were extracted and analyzed retrospectively, using NVivo Ncapture between June 2014 and March 2015. There were a total number of 3449 followers by March 20, 2015. Results showed that a majority of the Twitter followers (61%, n=2104) were seeking gynecological information, followed by pregnancy related information (27%, n=931), breast-feeding advice (9%, n=310), and other health related information (3%, n=103). Results also showed an increased level of health awareness and comprehension among Twitter followers. Further research is needed to promote women's health in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world through social media platforms such as Twitter and similar platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube which are also popular in the Arab world.
KW - Health promotion
KW - Saudi Arabia
KW - Social media
KW - Women's health
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84949528888&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3233/978-1-61499-538-8-259
DO - 10.3233/978-1-61499-538-8-259
M3 - Conference contribution
C2 - 26153009
AN - SCOPUS:84949528888
T3 - Studies in Health Technology and Informatics
SP - 259
EP - 262
BT - Enabling Health Informatics Applications
A2 - Mantas, John
A2 - Househ, Mowafa S.
A2 - Hasman, Arie
PB - IOS Press
T2 - 13th International Conference on Informatics, Management, and Technology in Healthcare, ICIMTH 2015
Y2 - 9 July 2015 through 11 July 2015
ER -