{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T04:11:38Z","timestamp":1760242298491,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,4,24]],"date-time":"2017-04-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1492992000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania","award":["7690\/30\/15.04.2016"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["7690\/30\/15.04.2016"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Publications"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The evolution of Internet from static Web \u201cpublishing\u201d to the highly participative, and data-driven, innovations of Web 2.0 has been influencing how people search for health-related information. This review included studies indexed in the PubMed electronic database that focused on social media analysis, examining relationships between participants (patients and healthcare consumers) through social media usage. The obtained results showed that previous research regarding social media\u2019s impact on patients and healthcare consumers aimed at a combination of platforms, but there is a penury of information about niche topics or its usage for retrieving medical information. Nevertheless, social media proved to be to be a promising tool in research mainly for recruitment purposes. The review has outlined that eHealth literacy is an attribute for populations that are female and relatively young and educated. Blogs share personal experiences, YouTube contains unregulated, high- and low-quality information that can mislead individuals, Facebook contains more marketing than health-related information, while Wikipedia is recommended for providing high-quality information. Despite healthcare practitioners\u2019 and healthcare public institutions\u2019 reluctance about the use of social media, this review demonstrates the usefulness of social media for patients and healthcare consumers in retrieving health-related information based on content availability and usage implications, and highlights gaps in knowledge that further research needs to fill.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/publications5020009","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,4,24]],"date-time":"2017-04-24T13:10:11Z","timestamp":1493039411000},"page":"9","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":17,"title":["Social Media Usage for Patients and Healthcare Consumers: A Literature Review"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"5","author":[{"given":"Ariana-Anamaria","family":"Cordo\u015f","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Informatics and Biostatistics, Iuliu Ha\u0163ieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6 Louis Pasteur, 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2342-4311","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sorana","family":"Bolboac\u0103","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Informatics and Biostatistics, Iuliu Ha\u0163ieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6 Louis Pasteur, 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}]},{"given":"Cristina","family":"Drugan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Biochemistry, Iuliu Ha\u0163ieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6 Louis Pasteur, 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,4,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10","DOI":"10.1080\/10810730.2011.589882","article-title":"Realizing the promise of Web 2.0: Engaging community intelligence","volume":"16","author":"Hesse","year":"2011","journal-title":"J. Health Commun."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"359","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pec.2013.10.007","article-title":"Health information and communication technology in healthcare communication: The good, the bad, and the transformative","volume":"93","author":"Reis","year":"2013","journal-title":"Patient Educ. Couns."},{"key":"ref_3","first-page":"1","article-title":"Definition of Health 2.0 and Medicine 2.0: A systematic review","volume":"12","author":"Engelen","year":"2010","journal-title":"J. Med. Internet Res."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"391","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijmedinf.2010.01.006","article-title":"Revisiting the online health information reliability debate in the wake of \u201cweb 2.0\u201d: An inter-disciplinary literature and website review","volume":"79","author":"Adams","year":"2010","journal-title":"Int. J. Med. Inform."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"135","DOI":"10.3163\/1536-5050.99.2.005","article-title":"Consumer language, patient language, and thesauri: A review of the literature","volume":"99","author":"Smith","year":"2011","journal-title":"J. Med. Libr. Assoc."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"51","DOI":"10.1258\/1357633054461679","article-title":"Telecare: Perspectives on the changing role of patients and citizens","volume":"11","author":"Finch","year":"2005","journal-title":"J. Telemed. Telecare"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"433","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pec.2013.03.012","article-title":"Measuring the effects of online health information for patients: Item generation for an e-health impact questionnaire","volume":"93","author":"Kelly","year":"2013","journal-title":"Patient Educ. Couns."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"219","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1468-0009.2012.00662.x","article-title":"Health and illness in a connected world: How might sharing experiences on the internet affect people\u2019s health?","volume":"90","author":"Ziebland","year":"2012","journal-title":"Milbank Q."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"389","DOI":"10.2522\/ptj.20130432","article-title":"Physical therapy 2.0: Leveraging social media to engage patients in rehabilitation and health promotion","volume":"95","author":"Knight","year":"2015","journal-title":"Phys. Ther."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hamm, M., Shulhan, J., Williams, G., Milne, A., Scott, S., and Hartling, L. (2014). A systematic review of the use and effectiveness of social media in child health. BMC Pediatr., 14.","DOI":"10.1186\/1471-2431-14-138"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1141","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(11)60449-2","article-title":"Facebook friend request from a patient?","volume":"377","author":"Devi","year":"2011","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"189","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1369-7625.2007.00484.x","article-title":"Virtual community consultation? Using the literature and weblogs to link community perspectives and health technology assessment","volume":"11","author":"Street","year":"2008","journal-title":"Health Expect."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e14","DOI":"10.2196\/jmir.1589","article-title":"Wikipedia: A key tool for global public health promotion","volume":"13","author":"Heilman","year":"2011","journal-title":"J. Med. Internet Res."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"373","DOI":"10.1136\/jamia.2010.004507","article-title":"Wikipedia and osteosarcoma: A trustworthy patients\u2019 information?","volume":"17","author":"Leithner","year":"2010","journal-title":"J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., Altman, D., and The Prisma Group (2009). Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: The PRISMA statement. PLoS Med., 7.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pmed.1000097"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"59","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bushor.2009.09.003","article-title":"Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media","volume":"53","author":"Kaplan","year":"2010","journal-title":"Bus. Horiz."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e002819","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjopen-2013-002819","article-title":"Social media use among patients and caregivers: A scoping review","volume":"3","author":"Hamm","year":"2013","journal-title":"BMJ Open"},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Canese, K., and Weis, S. (2013). PubMed: The Bibliographic Database, The NCBI Handbook [Internet]."},{"key":"ref_19","first-page":"1","article-title":"Guidance on the conduct of narrative synthesis in systematic reviews. A product from the ESRC Methods Programme Version","volume":"1","author":"Popay","year":"2006","journal-title":"Prod. ESRC Method Program. Version"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"865","DOI":"10.1100\/tsw.2010.75","article-title":"Exact Probabilities and Confidence Limits for Binomial Samples: Applied to the Difference between Two Proportions","volume":"10","year":"2010","journal-title":"Sci. World J."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e182","DOI":"10.2196\/jmir.3275","article-title":"Representation of health conditions on Facebook: Content analysis and evaluation of user engagement","volume":"16","author":"Hale","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Med. Internet Res."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"471","DOI":"10.1197\/jamia.M3059","article-title":"Seeking health information online: Does Wikipedia matter?","volume":"16","author":"Laurent","year":"2009","journal-title":"J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"349","DOI":"10.1007\/s11764-014-0348-4","article-title":"Social networking site usage among childhood cancer survivors\u2014A potential tool for research recruitment?","volume":"8","author":"Seltzer","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Cancer Surviv."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"445","DOI":"10.3163\/1536-5050.95.4.445","article-title":"Characteristics of cancer blog users","volume":"95","author":"Kim","year":"2007","journal-title":"J. Med. Libr. Assoc."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"127","DOI":"10.3163\/1536-5050.99.2.004","article-title":"Putting the pieces together: Endometriosis blogs, cognitive authority, and collaborative information behavior","volume":"99","author":"Neal","year":"2011","journal-title":"J. Med. Libr. Assoc."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"281","DOI":"10.1002\/clc.21981","article-title":"Assessing the credibility of the \u201cYouTube approach\u201d to health information on acute myocardial infarction","volume":"35","author":"Pant","year":"2012","journal-title":"Clin. Cardiol."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"749","DOI":"10.1017\/S0022215113001473","article-title":"YouTube as a source of information on rhinosinusitis: The good, the bad and the ugly","volume":"127","author":"Biggs","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Laryngol. Otol."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1160","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMc1107673","article-title":"Movement disorders on YouTube\u2014Caveat spectator","volume":"365","author":"Stamelou","year":"2011","journal-title":"N. Engl. J. Med."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"129","DOI":"10.3121\/cmr.2013.1194","article-title":"Analysis of YouTube as a source of information for West Nile Virus infection","volume":"12","author":"Dubey","year":"2014","journal-title":"Clin. Med. Res."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"420","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pec.2013.06.006","article-title":"\u201cPeople power\u201d or \u201cpester power\u201d? YouTube as a forum for the generation of evidence and patient advocacy","volume":"93","author":"Mazanderani","year":"2013","journal-title":"Patient Educ. Couns."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1514","DOI":"10.2105\/AJPH.2009.175125","article-title":"Diagnosis blog: Checking up on health blogs in the blogosphere","volume":"100","author":"Miller","year":"2010","journal-title":"Am. J. Public Health"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e198","DOI":"10.2196\/jmir.2653","article-title":"Communicating genetics and smoking through social media: Are we there yet?","volume":"15","author":"Suggs","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Med. Internet Res."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e1345","DOI":"10.1542\/peds.2013-2966","article-title":"Social media methods for studying rare diseases","volume":"133","author":"Schumacher","year":"2014","journal-title":"Pediatrics"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"16","DOI":"10.1136\/amiajnl-2012-000949","article-title":"\u201cNot all my friends need to know\u201d: A qualitative study of teenage patients, privacy, and social media","volume":"20","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e62","DOI":"10.2196\/jmir.4069","article-title":"Wikipedia and medicine: Quantifying readership, editors, and the significance of natural language","volume":"17","author":"Heilman","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Med. Internet Res."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e260","DOI":"10.2196\/jmir.3569","article-title":"Motivations for contributing to health-related articles on Wikipedia: an interview study","volume":"16","author":"Potts","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Med. Internet Res."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e243","DOI":"10.2196\/jmir.3786","article-title":"Beyond traditional advertisements: Leveraging Facebook\u2019s social structures for research recruitment","volume":"16","author":"Valdez","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Med. Internet Res."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"De Vries, N., Carlson, J., and Moscato, P. (2014). A data-driven approach to reverse engineering customer engagement models: Towards functional constructs. PLoS ONE, 9.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0102768"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"439","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jadohealth.2012.02.001","article-title":"Older adolescents\u2019 views regarding participation in Facebook research","volume":"51","author":"Moreno","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Adolesc. Health"},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e172","DOI":"10.2196\/jmir.3117","article-title":"Predictors of eHealth usage: Insights on the digital divide from the Health Information National Trends Survey 2012","volume":"16","author":"Kontos","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Med. Internet Res."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e70","DOI":"10.2196\/jmir.3992","article-title":"eHealth literacy and Web 2.0 health information seeking behaviors among baby boomers and older adults","volume":"17","author":"Tennant","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Med. Internet Res."},{"key":"ref_42","first-page":"44","article-title":"Examining e-Health literacy and the digital divide in an underserved population in Hawaii","volume":"73","author":"Connolly","year":"2014","journal-title":"Hawaii J. Med. Public Health"},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"536","DOI":"10.1080\/09540121.2014.980215","article-title":"General and health-related Internet use among an urban, community-based sample of HIV-positive women: Implications for intervention development","volume":"27","author":"Blackstock","year":"2015","journal-title":"AIDS Care"},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"33","DOI":"10.1016\/j.breast.2013.10.003","article-title":"Patient information on breast reconstruction in the era of the world wide web. A snapshot analysis of information available on youtube.com","volume":"23","author":"Tan","year":"2014","journal-title":"Breast"},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"586","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jpedsurg.2013.08.004","article-title":"Pediatric surgery on YouTube\u2122: Is the truth out there?","volume":"49","author":"Bezner","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Pediatr. Surg."},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"474","DOI":"10.1111\/1742-6723.12274","article-title":"Are YouTube videos accurate and reliable on basic life support and cardiopulmonary resuscitation?","volume":"26","author":"Yaylaci","year":"2014","journal-title":"Emerg. Med. Australas."},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1753","DOI":"10.1017\/S003329171100287X","article-title":"Quality of information sources about mental disorders: A comparison of Wikipedia with centrally controlled web and printed sources","volume":"42","author":"Reavley","year":"2012","journal-title":"Psychol. Med."}],"container-title":["Publications"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2304-6775\/5\/2\/9\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T18:33:16Z","timestamp":1760207596000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2304-6775\/5\/2\/9"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2017,4,24]]},"references-count":47,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,6]]}},"alternative-id":["publications5020009"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/publications5020009","relation":{},"ISSN":["2304-6775"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2304-6775"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2017,4,24]]}}}