Overview of Facebook Use by Hospitals in Italy: A Nationwide Survey during the COVID-19 Emergency.

ABSTRACT: Background: Facebook is the most popular social network across the world and also allows users access to health information. Our study presents an overview of the official Facebook profiles of hospitals in Italy (n = 1351) and how much they are used. Methods: All hospitals were surveyed on the number of Facebook posts in May (post-lockdown) and October (second pandemic wave) 2020. The number of followers, the creation date of the official page, and the frequency of publication-that is, the average number of days between two subsequent posts-were determined. Results: In Italy, only 28% (n = 379) of the hospitals had official Facebook pages, of which 20.6% (n = 78) were public hospitals, and 79.4% (n = 301) were private hospitals. Of the hospitals with Facebook pages, 49.1% used them every w

SUBMITTER: Schiavone B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8304234 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature