Social Media Use Among Adolescent Patients Visiting an Inner City Pediatric Emergency Department

Sarah Christian-Kopp, Madhumita Sinha, Angela Chen, Frank Lovecchio

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The objective of the research was to study the pattern of social media use among adolescents visiting an inner city hospital emergency department. A brief survey (English/Spanish) regarding social media use was conducted between January and March 2010. Participants were 215 teens (13-18 years), 59% of whom were Hispanic. The majority (78.6%) of participants were current users of social media. MySpace (65%) was the favored social networking web site. The study revealed that 44% of adolescents most frequently (>5 times/day) connected with their proximate peers, and 36 teens sought health information "once in a while." We concluded that social media networking was popular among our adolescent study subjects and may have future potential as an effective health education tool.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)147-161
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Consumer Health on the Internet
Volume16
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2012

Keywords

  • adolescent
  • emergency
  • health information
  • social media
  • social networking

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)

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