Disseminating Research Information through Facebook and Twitter (DRIFT): presenting an evidence based framework

Ryan, Gemma S and Sfar-Gandoura, Hanah (2018). Disseminating Research Information through Facebook and Twitter (DRIFT): presenting an evidence based framework. Nurse Researcher, 26(1), article no. e1562.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7748/nr.2018.e1562

Abstract

Background: The social media platform Facebook boasts over 1,284 million daily active users globally. It is also known that a large proportion of adults use the internet to seek health related information.

Aim: to critically analyse the use of social media to engage parents of children with ADHD with clinical research findings.

Methods: Observation and qualitative content analysis combined with Facebook insights was used to evaluate the levels of engagement and interaction with different types of research information.

Results: Over 1100 people from 41 nations have engaged with the group. Sharing information through a range of Facebook functions was found to successfully achieve engagement and reach nationally and internationally for this demographic.

Conclusion: Lay research users are eager to engage and understand clinical research and social media is an appropriate way to disseminate this. This article has proposed some methods and explanatory reasons for this phenomena.

Implications for practice: It is known that social media can be used for effective communication. This article presents a much-needed evidence based framework that may be used by nursing and health researchers to successfully achieve this.

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