Social Media Impact on Various Health Practices Analytical Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND 1. Social media is basically a web based forum where people from all over the world interact and share their routine, problem and issues. OBJECTIVES 2. The objective of the study is to assess the influence of use of social media on hospitals clients to analyze the perception of healthcare providers on social media and to recommend optimal use of social media in healthcare delivery METHODS 3. Study design was cross sectional with 12 months study duration, study was conducted at tertiary care hospital in Rawalpindi RESULTS 4. The study results indicated that majority of the people knew about the use of social media platforms, among which whatsapp was more frequent one. It also indicated that most people believed that information provide on social media is correct. They frequently consult social media for their health related issues and consider that information to be authentic and sufficient. CONCLUSION 5. Social media has both positive and negative impact on modern world. At one point it provides awareness about every topic to common man and on the other hand it also manipulates society to make their opinions about health issues and to argue with healthcare providers just on the basis of layman data which has no proven authenticity. In doing so they make such self made decisions regarding their health that may harm them. KEYWORDS 6. Smart phone, Interpretation, Authenticity, Practices, Social Media.