ReviewAfrican journal of primary health care & family medicine2020
Social media health promotion in South Africa: Opportunities and challenges.
Review in African journal of primary health care & family medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The role of social media on COVID-19 preventive behaviors worldwide, systematic review.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- A systematic review of health communication strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa-2015-2022.Health promotion perspectives · 2023Pooled it
- Navigating recruitment and retention challenges in a social media health intervention in francophone West Africa.Health promotion international · 2025Trial
- Understanding Risk Factors for Unmet Contraceptive Needs Among Married and Cohabiting Women in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from 22 Countries.Rwanda journal of medicine and health sciences · 2026Article
- Evaluating the efficacy of digital media platforms in disseminating public health information: A global review with implications for South Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2026Review
- Internet Memes as Drivers of Health Narratives and Infodemics: Integrative Review.JMIR infodemiology · 2025Review
- Information sources and message framing effect on parental willingness for adolescent HPV vaccination in China.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2025Article
- Optimizing social media influencers for health communication in Africa.Global health action · 2025Article
- Digital pulse: Social media reaction to South Africa's National Health Insurance implementation.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025Article
- Designing Artificial Intelligence-Powered Health Care Assistants to Reach Vulnerable Populations: A Discrete Choice Experiment Among South African University Students.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Digital health · 2025Article
- #MissingInAction: A review of the social media footprint of South African interventional radiology practitioners.Journal of the colleges of medicine of South Africa · 2025Article
- Approach to external cephalic version through social media: experience from a tertiary center in Brazil.Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira (1992) · 2025Article
- The South African Competition Commission COVID-19 easing of competition rules for private healthcare to facilitate public-private interaction - a media content analysis.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- A decade of PrEP: the evolution of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis content and sentiments in South African print news media, 2012-2021.Culture, health & sexuality · 2024Article
- Deaf and hard-of-hearing patients are unsatisfied with and avoid German health care: Results from an online survey in German Sign Language.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Unlock digital health promotion in LMICs to benefit the youth.PLOS digital health · 2023Review
- Comprehensive knowledge about HIV/AIDS and associated factors among adolescent girls in Rwanda: a nationwide cross-sectional study.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Addressing Consumer Misconceptions on Antibiotic Use and Resistance in the Context of Sore Throat: Learnings from Social Media Listening.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Assessing Engagement of Adolescents and Young Adults (AYA) in HIV Research: A Multi-method Analysis of a Crowdsourcing Open Call and Typology of AYA Engagement in Sub-Saharan Africa.AIDS and behavior · 2023Article
- Enhancing public awareness and practice of prostate cancer screening among African men: A scoping review.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHealth promotion is an effective tool for public health. It goes beyond preventing the spread of diseases and reducing the disease burden. It includes interventions encompassing the creation of supportive environments, building public health policy, developing personal skills, reorienting health services and strengthening multisectoral community actions.
aimThe aim of the review was conduct an analysis on the opportunities and challenges of the use of social media for health promotion in South Africa.
methodsA search of review articles on health promotion using social media conducted using Medline and Google Scholar. Secondary searches were conducted using references and citations from selected articles.
resultsSocial media has potential of being an effective health promotion tool in South Africa. It presents an opportunity for scaling health promotion programs because of its low cost, its ability to have virtual communities and the ease of access eliminating geographical barriers. It also allows real-time communication between various stakeholders. It allows information to spread far and fast and leaving irrespective of the credibility of the source of information. There is a need to take into account country specific socio-economic issues, which may perpetuate unintended consequences related to the digital divide, data costs and the varying levels of health literacy.
conclusionConsidering the opportunities presented by social media, the National Department of Health needs to review its health promotion strategy and include the use of social media as an enabler. They also need to address to explore intersectoral measures to address issues which threatening equitable access to credible health promotion information.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.