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Twitter and Public Health (Part 1): How Individual Public Health Professionals Use Twitter for Professional Development

BACKGROUND: The use of social networking sites is increasingly being adopted in public health, in part, because of the barriers to funding and reduced resources. Public health professionals are using social media platforms, specifically Twitter, as a way to facilitate professional development. OBJEC...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hart, Mark, Stetten, Nichole E, Islam, Sabrina, Pizarro, Katherine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5628283/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28931499
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/publichealth.6795
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author Hart, Mark
Stetten, Nichole E
Islam, Sabrina
Pizarro, Katherine
author_facet Hart, Mark
Stetten, Nichole E
Islam, Sabrina
Pizarro, Katherine
author_sort Hart, Mark
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The use of social networking sites is increasingly being adopted in public health, in part, because of the barriers to funding and reduced resources. Public health professionals are using social media platforms, specifically Twitter, as a way to facilitate professional development. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to identify public health professionals using Twitter and to analyze how they use this platform to enhance their formal and informal professional development within the context of public health. METHODS: Keyword searches were conducted to identify and invite potential participants to complete a survey related to their use of Twitter for public health and professional experiences. Data regarding demographic attributes, Twitter usage, and qualitative information were obtained through an anonymous Web-based survey. Open-response survey questions were analyzed using the constant comparison method. RESULTS: “Using Twitter makes it easier to expand my networking opportunities” and “I find Twitter useful for professional development” scored highest, with a mean score of 4.57 (standard deviation [SD] 0.74) and 4.43 (SD 0.76) on a 5-point Likert scale. Analysis of the qualitative data shows the emergence of the following themes for why public health professionals mostly use Twitter: (1) geography, (2) continuing education, (3) professional gain, and (4) communication. CONCLUSIONS: For public health professionals in this study, Twitter is a platform best used for their networking and professional development. Furthermore, the use of Twitter allows public health professionals to overcome a series of barriers and enhances opportunities for growth.
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spelling pubmed-56282832017-10-20 Twitter and Public Health (Part 1): How Individual Public Health Professionals Use Twitter for Professional Development Hart, Mark Stetten, Nichole E Islam, Sabrina Pizarro, Katherine JMIR Public Health Surveill Original Paper BACKGROUND: The use of social networking sites is increasingly being adopted in public health, in part, because of the barriers to funding and reduced resources. Public health professionals are using social media platforms, specifically Twitter, as a way to facilitate professional development. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to identify public health professionals using Twitter and to analyze how they use this platform to enhance their formal and informal professional development within the context of public health. METHODS: Keyword searches were conducted to identify and invite potential participants to complete a survey related to their use of Twitter for public health and professional experiences. Data regarding demographic attributes, Twitter usage, and qualitative information were obtained through an anonymous Web-based survey. Open-response survey questions were analyzed using the constant comparison method. RESULTS: “Using Twitter makes it easier to expand my networking opportunities” and “I find Twitter useful for professional development” scored highest, with a mean score of 4.57 (standard deviation [SD] 0.74) and 4.43 (SD 0.76) on a 5-point Likert scale. Analysis of the qualitative data shows the emergence of the following themes for why public health professionals mostly use Twitter: (1) geography, (2) continuing education, (3) professional gain, and (4) communication. CONCLUSIONS: For public health professionals in this study, Twitter is a platform best used for their networking and professional development. Furthermore, the use of Twitter allows public health professionals to overcome a series of barriers and enhances opportunities for growth. JMIR Publications 2017-09-20 /pmc/articles/PMC5628283/ /pubmed/28931499 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/publichealth.6795 Text en ©Mark Hart, Nichole E Stetten, Sabrina Islam, Katherine Pizarro. Originally published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (http://publichealth.jmir.org), 20.09.2017. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://publichealth.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Hart, Mark
Stetten, Nichole E
Islam, Sabrina
Pizarro, Katherine
Twitter and Public Health (Part 1): How Individual Public Health Professionals Use Twitter for Professional Development
title Twitter and Public Health (Part 1): How Individual Public Health Professionals Use Twitter for Professional Development
title_full Twitter and Public Health (Part 1): How Individual Public Health Professionals Use Twitter for Professional Development
title_fullStr Twitter and Public Health (Part 1): How Individual Public Health Professionals Use Twitter for Professional Development
title_full_unstemmed Twitter and Public Health (Part 1): How Individual Public Health Professionals Use Twitter for Professional Development
title_short Twitter and Public Health (Part 1): How Individual Public Health Professionals Use Twitter for Professional Development
title_sort twitter and public health (part 1): how individual public health professionals use twitter for professional development
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5628283/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28931499
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/publichealth.6795
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