MANAGING HEALTH AWARENESS KNOWLEDGE VIA THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA APPLICATIONS AND STATISTICAL METHODS

Abstract

Health awareness is a key aspect of public health communication, as it equips individuals with knowledge, habits and attitudes that empower them to live their lives free of illnesses. In the digital-driven age, social media provides horizons for health awareness to be delivered in a wider range of attractive formats than can be achieved through printed media. Social media is a powerful and effective hub for healthcare organisations to raise public health awareness due to its ease of access and the absence of geographical and physical constraints. Despite considerable progress in using this technology to manage health promotion, there is still a need for an effective platform that will help health authorities manage health knowledge. In addition, there are issues that relate to fallacies in some medical and health information, which leads to serious health consequences. The aim of this research is to examine the importance of social media in spreading health awareness knowledge in a wider and more cost-effective way. This is demonstrated by developing software-based knowledge that aids health authorities in spreading health awareness knowledge in a smart manner. To achieve this aim, a quantitative approach was adopted that involved a physical and online field study after an extensive review of the literature. For validation, case studies were employed and the judgements of industrial experts obtained. The principal findings of this research lie in providing an effective platform with the aim of enabling health authorities to manage their health awareness knowledge and meet the requirements of the digital era. The role of the proposed Smart Health Awareness Message (SHAWM) platform is illustrated via a range of different case studies on various topics. Each case demonstrates an aspect of the platform's capability, confirming that it is suitable, generalisable and applicable to the communication of a variety of health issues. A standard template is also developed that enables health awareness knowledge to be articulated to fit various social media applications. These findings provide a solid evidence base of factors that need to be considered in order to generate people-friendly health awareness messages.