From Engagement to Concerns: Social Media Use Among a Sample of Australian Public Health Professionals
Issue Addressed Social media plays a crucial and diverse role in health promotion and public health. However, professionals often cite various concerns and a lack of knowledge of how to use it effectively. This study aimed to explore the use of social media by Australian health promotion and public...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Australian Health Promotion Association
2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | This study was funded by Healthway (project number 34516). http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/97499 |
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| author | McCausland, Kahlia Tazrin, Zannatul Leavy, Justine Freeman, B. Wolf, Katharina Leaver, Tama Chih, Jun Mullan, Barbara Girdler, Sonya Jancey, Jonine |
| author_facet | McCausland, Kahlia Tazrin, Zannatul Leavy, Justine Freeman, B. Wolf, Katharina Leaver, Tama Chih, Jun Mullan, Barbara Girdler, Sonya Jancey, Jonine |
| author_sort | McCausland, Kahlia |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Issue Addressed
Social media plays a crucial and diverse role in health promotion and public health. However, professionals often cite various concerns and a lack of knowledge of how to use it effectively. This study aimed to explore the use of social media by Australian health promotion and public health professionals.
Methods
A cross-sectional online survey was conducted between July and August 2023 with people aged 18 years or older currently working in a public health or health promotion role in Australia.
Results
One hundred and fifty eligible responses were obtained. Participants were predominantly female (85%) and aged between 18 and 39 years (50%). Most participants (40%) rated themselves as having an intermediate social media competency level, and 60% had never undertaken social media training. The majority used social media in their professional role (77%) for dissemination (68%), education (62%) and advocacy (54%) purposes. However, several concerns were highlighted, including the validity of information on social media (43%) and inappropriate online behaviour (40%).
Conclusions
Despite high levels of social media use for education and advocacy purposes, participants had concerns about using social media in a professional context and about the reliability and quality of information acquired through social media. Training on effectively navigating social media and verifying the accuracy of available information is worthy of future attention.
So What?
These findings will inform the development of a massive open online course that aims to equip health promotion and public health professionals with the skills to use social media for public health education and advocacy. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:48:41Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-97499 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:48:41Z |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publisher | Australian Health Promotion Association |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-974992025-06-24T04:45:23Z From Engagement to Concerns: Social Media Use Among a Sample of Australian Public Health Professionals McCausland, Kahlia Tazrin, Zannatul Leavy, Justine Freeman, B. Wolf, Katharina Leaver, Tama Chih, Jun Mullan, Barbara Girdler, Sonya Jancey, Jonine health promotion public health public health practice social media Humans Social Media Female Male Cross-Sectional Studies Adult Australia Adolescent Middle Aged Health Promotion Young Adult Public Health Surveys and Questionnaires Health Personnel Humans Cross-Sectional Studies Public Health Adolescent Adult Middle Aged Health Personnel Health Promotion Australia Female Male Young Adult Social Media Surveys and Questionnaires Issue Addressed Social media plays a crucial and diverse role in health promotion and public health. However, professionals often cite various concerns and a lack of knowledge of how to use it effectively. This study aimed to explore the use of social media by Australian health promotion and public health professionals. Methods A cross-sectional online survey was conducted between July and August 2023 with people aged 18 years or older currently working in a public health or health promotion role in Australia. Results One hundred and fifty eligible responses were obtained. Participants were predominantly female (85%) and aged between 18 and 39 years (50%). Most participants (40%) rated themselves as having an intermediate social media competency level, and 60% had never undertaken social media training. The majority used social media in their professional role (77%) for dissemination (68%), education (62%) and advocacy (54%) purposes. However, several concerns were highlighted, including the validity of information on social media (43%) and inappropriate online behaviour (40%). Conclusions Despite high levels of social media use for education and advocacy purposes, participants had concerns about using social media in a professional context and about the reliability and quality of information acquired through social media. Training on effectively navigating social media and verifying the accuracy of available information is worthy of future attention. So What? These findings will inform the development of a massive open online course that aims to equip health promotion and public health professionals with the skills to use social media for public health education and advocacy. 2025 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/97499 10.1002/hpja.70035 eng This study was funded by Healthway (project number 34516). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Australian Health Promotion Association fulltext |
| spellingShingle | health promotion public health public health practice social media Humans Social Media Female Male Cross-Sectional Studies Adult Australia Adolescent Middle Aged Health Promotion Young Adult Public Health Surveys and Questionnaires Health Personnel Humans Cross-Sectional Studies Public Health Adolescent Adult Middle Aged Health Personnel Health Promotion Australia Female Male Young Adult Social Media Surveys and Questionnaires McCausland, Kahlia Tazrin, Zannatul Leavy, Justine Freeman, B. Wolf, Katharina Leaver, Tama Chih, Jun Mullan, Barbara Girdler, Sonya Jancey, Jonine From Engagement to Concerns: Social Media Use Among a Sample of Australian Public Health Professionals |
| title | From Engagement to Concerns: Social Media Use Among a Sample of Australian Public Health Professionals |
| title_full | From Engagement to Concerns: Social Media Use Among a Sample of Australian Public Health Professionals |
| title_fullStr | From Engagement to Concerns: Social Media Use Among a Sample of Australian Public Health Professionals |
| title_full_unstemmed | From Engagement to Concerns: Social Media Use Among a Sample of Australian Public Health Professionals |
| title_short | From Engagement to Concerns: Social Media Use Among a Sample of Australian Public Health Professionals |
| title_sort | from engagement to concerns: social media use among a sample of australian public health professionals |
| topic | health promotion public health public health practice social media Humans Social Media Female Male Cross-Sectional Studies Adult Australia Adolescent Middle Aged Health Promotion Young Adult Public Health Surveys and Questionnaires Health Personnel Humans Cross-Sectional Studies Public Health Adolescent Adult Middle Aged Health Personnel Health Promotion Australia Female Male Young Adult Social Media Surveys and Questionnaires |
| url | This study was funded by Healthway (project number 34516). http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/97499 |