Dataset Information

Digital Support for Renal Patients Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examining the Efforts of Singapore Social Service Agencies in Facebook.

ABSTRACT: During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, social service agencies (SSAs) play a crucial role in supporting renal patients, who are particularly vulnerable to infections. Social media platforms such as Facebook, serves as an effective medium for these SSAs to disseminate information. Content analysis of the SSAs' Facebook posts can provide insights on whether Facebook has been adequately utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic and enable SSAs to improve their social media use in future pandemics. This study aimed to compare renal-related SSAs' Facebook post content before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Facebook posts of three SSAs National Kidney Foundation (NKF), Kidney Dialysis Foundation (KDF), and Muslim Kidney Action Association (MKAC), posted during the pre-COVID-19 period (January 23, 2019 to June 2, 2019) and the peri-COVID-19 period (January 23, 2020 to June 1, 2020) were extracted. A classification scheme was developed by two coders with themes derived inductively and deductively. Each Facebook post was assigned with a theme. Quantitative analyses indicate that the number of Facebook posts increased from 115 in the pre-COVID-19 period to 293 in the peri-COVID-19 period. During peri-COVID-19, posts regarding lifestyle changes, donations and infectious disease surfaced. While the proportion of posts about encouraging kindness increased from one to 77 posts, the proportion of posts about community-based events and psychosocial support decreased from 44 to 15 posts and 17 to 10 posts respectively during the two periods. Facebook was found to be well-utilized by two of the three renal SSAs in engaging their beneficiaries during the pandemic. During future pandemics, renal SSAs should place emphasis on posts related to psychosocial support and encouraging kindness. Further studies are required to ascertain the impact of COVID-19 from the perspective of renal patients and also to validate the classification scheme which was developed in this study. The study's methodology and classification scheme can be used to guide future studies for evaluating the social media outreach performance of renal health support groups.

SUBMITTER: Tan J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8476881 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:BACKGROUND:Sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), which includes the diagnosis of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), is a leading cause of infant mortality in the United States. Despite prevention efforts, many parents continue to create unsafe infant sleep environments and use potentially dangerous infant sleep and monitoring devices, ultimately leading to sleep-related infant deaths. Analyzing Facebook conversations regarding SIDS may offer a unique maternal perspective to guide future research and prevention efforts. OBJECTIVE:This study aims to describe and analyze conversations among mothers engaged in discussions about SIDS on a Facebook mother's group. We were interested in understanding maternal knowledge of SIDS, identifying information sources for SIDS, describing actual infant sleep practices, exploring opinions regarding infant sleep products and monitoring devices, and discovering evidence of provider communication regarding SIDS. METHODS:We extracted and analyzed 20 posts and 912 comments from 512 mothers who participated in a specific Facebook mother's group and engaged in conversations about SIDS. There were 2 reviewers who coded the data using qualitative descriptive content analysis. Themes were induced after discussion among researchers and after the study objectives were addressed. RESULTS:The theme of social support emerged, specifically informational and emotional support. A variety of informational sources for SIDS and safe sleep were identified, as was a continuum of infant sleep practices (ranging from unsafe to safe sleep per the American Academy of Pediatrics standards). There was widespread discussion regarding infant sleep products and monitoring devices. Embedded within conversations were (1) confusion among commonly used medical terminology, (2) the practice of unsafe infant sleep, (3) inconsistency in provider communication about SIDS, and (4) maternal anxiety regarding SIDS. CONCLUSIONS:We uncovered new findings in this analysis, such as the commonality of infant sleep products and monitoring devices and widespread maternal anxiety regarding SIDS. Additionally, mothers who participated in the Facebook group provided and received informational and emotional support regarding SIDS via this social media format. Such results can guide future prevention efforts by informing health communication regarding SUID and safe sleep. Future provider and public health agency communication on the topic of SUID and safe sleep should be simple and clear, address infant sleep products and monitoring devices, address maternal anxiety regarding SIDS, and address the common practice of unsafe sleep.

Project description:BackgroundLoneliness, social isolation, and feeling disconnected from society are commonly experienced by parents of children with rare diseases and are, among others, important reasons for special supportive care needs. Social networking platforms are increasingly used for health communication, information exchange, and support. In the field of rare pediatric diseases, qualitative studies have shown that Facebook online support groups are utilized by and beneficial for persons affected by rare pediatric diseases. Nonetheless, the extent of this usage has not been investigated.ObjectiveThis study aims to provide a comprehensive quantitative analysis of the extent of Facebook usage as a tool for rare pediatric disease support groups and to explore factors that influence a disease's representation on Facebook. These results potentially offer important insights for future public health initiatives and give direction to further research that can give much needed support to parents of children with rare diseases.MethodsWe determined rare pediatric diseases using the inventory of the online portal Orphanet. Facebook support groups were identified by searching 5 synonymous disease descriptions using the group category search bar. Disease- and group-describing parameters were statistically analyzed using standard descriptive statistical methods.Results6398 Facebook support groups, representing 826 diseases (19.5% of all searched diseases), were found. 69% are private groups. Group type, size, activity (sum of posts, comments, and reactions calculated by Facebook), new memberships, and language varied largely between groups (member count: minimum 1, maximum 23,414; activity last 30 days: minimum 0, maximum 3606). The highest percentage of awareness and information groups was found for teratogenic diseases (18/68, 26%). The odds of finding a Facebook group increased according to the level of information available about the disease: known prevalence (odds ratio [OR] 3.98, 95% CI 3.39-4.66, P<.001), known disease type (OR 3.15, 95% CI 2.70-3.68, P<.001), and known inheritance mode (OR 2.06, 95% CI 1.68-2.52, P<.001) were all associated with higher odds of finding a Facebook group, as was dominant compared to nondominant inheritance (OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.74-3.42, P<.001). The number of groups per disease increased with higher prevalence.ConclusionsFacebook is widely used as a tool for support groups for rare pediatric diseases and continues to be relevant. Two-thirds of the groups are private groups, indicating group participants' need for privacy, which should be further explored. The advantages and limitations of Facebook as a tool for support groups in the field of rare diseases should be further investigated as it will allow health professionals to use Facebook more meaningfully in their counseling and guidance of affected individuals and their family members.

Project description:BackgroundAlthough studies have reported variation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival by geographic location, little is known about variation in OHCA survival at the level of emergency medical service (EMS) agencies-which may have modifiable practices, unlike counties and regions. We quantified the variation in OHCA survival across EMS agencies and explored whether variation in 2 specific EMS resuscitation practices were associated with survival to hospital admission.MethodsWithin the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival, a prospective registry representing ≈51% of the US population, we identified 258 342 OHCAs from 764 EMS agencies with >10 OHCA cases annually during 2015 to 2019. Using hierarchical logistic regression, risk-standardized rates of survival to hospital admission were computed for each EMS agency. We quantified inter-agency variation in survival with median odds ratios and assessed the association of 2 resuscitation practices (EMS response time and the proportion of OHCAs with termination of resuscitation without meeting futility criteria) with EMS agency survival rates to hospital admission.ResultsAcross 764 EMS agencies comprising 258 342 OHCAs, the median risk-standardized rate of survival to hospital admission was 27.3% (interquartile range, 24.5%-30.1%; range: 16.0%-45.6%). The adjusted median odds ratio was 1.35 (95% CI, 1.32-1.39), denoting that the odds of survival of 2 patients with identical covariates varied by 35% at 2 randomly selected EMS agencies. EMS agencies in the lowest quartile of risk-standardized survival had longer EMS response times when compared with the highest quartile (12.0±3.4 versus 9.0±2.6 minutes; P<0.001), and a higher proportion of OHCAs with termination of resuscitation without meeting futility criteria (27.9±16.1% versus 18.9±11.4%; P<0.001).ConclusionsSurvival after OHCA varies widely across EMS agencies. EMS response times and termination of resuscitation practices were associated with agency-level rates of survival to hospital admission, suggesting potentially modifiable practices which can improve OHCA survival.

Dataset Information

Digital Support for Renal Patients Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examining the Efforts of Singapore Social Service Agencies in Facebook.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets