Social Capital from Online Social Media is Associated with Visiting a Healthcare Practitioner at Least Once a Year Among College Students.

Abstract

: Social capital is positively associated with healthcare access such as healthcare practitioner visits. There does not appear to be any literature on social capital through online social media and its association with healthcare access such as healthcare practitioner visits. This paper studies the relationship between social capital through online social media use and healthcare practitioner visits. Methods: Data were analyzed from 663 participants in New York City in 2017 with exposure to social media prescription medication advertisements from social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube). The main predictor variable was visiting a healthcare practitioner at least once a year. Outcome variables were bonding social capital and bridging social capital from online social media. Results: Those who visited a healthcare practitioner at least once a year had greater mean bonding social capital and bridging social capital from online social media than those who did not visit a healthcare practitioner at least once a year. Multivariate linear regression analyses showed a similar pattern for not visiting a healthcare practitioner at least once a year (bonding social capital: b=-5.31, SE=1.68, p=0.002; bridging social capital: b=-3.27, SE=1.55, p=0.04). Conclusions: Government organizations, healthcare practitioners, and healthcare organizations should continue marketing and disseminating health education for young adults through online social media. This public health online social media health education is likely to be considered bonding social capital and/or bridging social capital by young adults and this may be associated with more young adults visiting healthcare practitioners at least once a year.