Using social media for health education and promotion: a pilot of WeChat-based prize quizzes on China national malaria day

BACKGROUND: Imported malaria cases remains a key health concern, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Providing accurate health information is important to improving people’s awareness of malaria. WeChat is an excellent social media tool for health information dissemination, especially during the pandemic. This study explored the effect of malaria knowledge dissemination via a WeChat public account. METHODS: A questionnaire for data collection was constructed using the online survey tool Sojump. Questionnaires were sent to users who followed the Jiangsu institute of Parasitic Disease WeChat public account during the National Malaria Day 2021 period. A small incentive (WeChat Red Packet) was distributed to everyone who answered the questionnaire correctly on time. RESULTS: A total of 13,169 valid questionnaires were collected during the China National Malaria Day period. Questions in which participants focused mainly on information pertaining to themselves, such as infection, symptoms, and epidemic areas, reached highest accuracy (above 90%). Questionnaires were submitted through smartphones and most of them were completed during the period of 4 days from April 23 to April 26, 2021 when a WeChat Red Packet was offered. The accuracy of responses was related to bolded words and location and number of knowledge points that were shown at the beginning of the questionnaire. The number of users of the WeChat public account in question increased from 5961 to 12,339 in just 4 days of the activity. CONCLUSION: A WeChat public account is a convenient and accessible tool for spreading malaria-related health information to the public. Distribution of incentives (Red Packets) can effectively increase public attention to popular science and health information and activities. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12936-022-04404-2.