Social media and mobile health apps are an innovative way to improve communication between community pharmacists and public.
Crilly and team has conducted a study to evaluate the perception of community pharmacists (CPs) with regards to the use of social media and mobile health apps in pharmacy public health services.
This was a mixed-method study that involved a cross-sectional survey and follow-up interviews. The study included 257 CPs working in community pharmacies. The survey covered the role of CPs in public health; use of social media; use of mobile health apps by CPs; demographic information. After the survey the participants who were interested to continue the study were invited to participate in the semi-structured interview. After the ethical approval responses were collected on paper or on online. About 257 responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Twenty-five respondents showed interest in follow-up interviews. Using framework methodology the interviews were transcribed and analyzed.
The study response rate was 43%. The participants who completed the survey were mostly under the age of 35 years. Regardless of the demographics, about half of the respondents conducted at least one public health awareness campaign. Face-to-face interview, telephone call, and E-mail were the commonly used tools to interact with the patients participated in the health awareness campaign.
Most of the CPs have promoted the use of social media pages and mobile health apps if maintained by a healthcare professionals (HCPs). Cps under the age of 35 years were more positive about the use of social media tools and mobile health apps in health promotion.
The study concluded that most of the CPs were positive about the use of social media and mobile health apps in health promotion. However, training pharmacy team regarding the usage of these tools is must. Additionally, awareness of evidence-based apps will increase the adoption of social media tools.
Reference:
Crilly P, Hassanali W, Khanna G, Matharu K, Patel D, Patel D, Rahman F,Kayyali R. Community pharmacist perceptions of their role and the use of socialmedia and mobile health applications as tools in public health. Res Social AdmPharm. 2019 Jan;15(1):23-30.