Local health departments find Twitter effective in spreading diabetes information | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis

Local health departments find Twitter effective in spreading diabetes information | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis


The web-based social media site Twitter is proving to be an effective tool for local health departments in disseminating health information — especially in promoting specific health behaviors.

Harris

The latest study, led by Jenine K. Harris, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, focused on diabetes, a disease that may affect an estimated one-third of U.S. adults by 2050.


“We focused on diabetes first, both because of increasing diabetes rates,” Harris says, “and also because people living with diabetes tend to use online health-related resources at a fairly high rate, so they are an audience that is already online and on social media.”

The study was published May 2 in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) electronic journal, Preventing Chronic Disease, and focused on how local health departments use social media to educate and inform the public about diabetes.

Read more at https://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/25413.aspx.