Examining healthcare workers' engagement with social media-based health education: Influencing factors, challenges, and future directions.

Background: Social Media-based Health Education (SMHE) provides an effective way to address health disparities and improve public health literacy. Despite its inherent advantages, Healthcare Workers (HCWs) in China have showed limited and transient interest in engaging with SMHE initiatives.

Objective: This study aims to examine healthcare workers' perceptions of SMHE, identifying current influencing factors, challenges, and proposing future directions for development.

Methods: A descriptive qualitative study was conducted from October 2021 to January 2022, involving healthcare workers (i.e., physicians, nurses, and hospital administrators) engaged in SMHE. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were undertaken with 30 HCWs, which were subsequently analyzed thematically.

Results: Thematic analysis yielded 165 initial codes, organized into 12 subcategories spanning three main themes: (1) HCWs' perceptions of SMHE, (2) drivers and barriers to HCWs' engagement with SMHE, and (3) strategies to overcome current challenges.

Conclusion: This study yielded three main conclusions. First, HCWs in China exhibit a noticeable optimism toward SMHE, but most of them still have certain concerns. Second, HCWs engagement with SMHE is motivated or requested by their organizations, rather than their own initiatives. The main barriers for HCWs engagement with SMHE include: lack of time, risk of reputational loss, conflicts of interest, patient welfare, and concerns about legal issues. Third, healthcare organizations, social media platforms, and governmental bodies, must collaboratively address these issues to ensure protection for health workers engaged with SMHE.

Practical value: This study finds that Chinese HCWs are willing to engage in SMHE provided they are moderately rewarded and assured of a secure environment.