Using Twitter for prenatal health promotion: Encouraging a multivitamin habit among college-aged females

Michael MacKert, Eunice Kim, Marie Guadagmo, Erin Donovan-Kicken

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Half of the pregnancies in the United States are unplanned and the highest rate of these unplanned pregnancies occurs in young women aged 18-24y. Serious birth defects, such as those that affect the neural tube, occur early in pregnancy, most of the time before a woman knows she is pregnant. These neural tube defects can be reduced by 50-72% with an adequate daily intake of folic acid. In continuing the research on how to effectively communicate the important benefits of folic acid to young women, this study sought to investigate the use of social media as a tool for health promotion. Young women are considered the 'power users' of social media and the current study uses Twitter as a vehicle for multivitamin promotion messages due to the ability to quickly share content and the potential to attract viral attention through re-tweets.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDelivering Quality Healthcare Anywhere Through Telehealth - Selected from Global Telehealth 2012, GT 2012
PublisherIOS Press
Pages93-103
Number of pages11
ISBN (Print)9781614991519
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012
Event2nd International Conference on Global Telehealth, GT 2012 - Sydney, NSW, Australia
Duration: 26 Nov 201228 Nov 2012

Publication series

NameStudies in Health Technology and Informatics
Volume182
ISSN (Print)0926-9630
ISSN (Electronic)1879-8365

Conference

Conference2nd International Conference on Global Telehealth, GT 2012
Country/TerritoryAustralia
CitySydney, NSW
Period26/11/1228/11/12

Keywords

  • Health promotion
  • Prenatal health
  • Social marketing
  • Social networking sites

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Using Twitter for prenatal health promotion: Encouraging a multivitamin habit among college-aged females'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this