title: Understanding and predicting social media use among community health center patients: a cross-sectional survey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The use of social media by health care organizations is growing and provides Web-based tools to connect patients, caregivers, and providers.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim was to determine the use and factors predicting the use of social media for health care-related purposes among medically underserved primary care patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional survey was administered to 444 patients of a federally qualified community health center.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Community health center patients preferred that their providers use email, cell phones for texting, and Facebook and cell phone apps for sharing health information. Significantly more Hispanic than white patients believed their providers should use Facebook (P=.001), YouTube (P=.01), and Twitter (P=.04) for sharing health information. Use and intentions to use social media for health-related purposes were significantly higher for those patients with higher subjective norm scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Understanding use and factors predicting use can increase adoption and utilization of social media for health care-related purposes among underserved patients in community health centers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Science, College of Life Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, United States. Carl_Hanson@byu.edu.
authors.forename: Carl L
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0792-3372
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Hanson
authors.forename: Josh
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1086-3865
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: West
authors.forename: Rosemary
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6473-0043
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thackeray
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8865-3668
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.forename: Jordan
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6686-689X
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Downey
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D001294:Attitude to Health; D040421:Cell Phone; D003151:Community Health Centers; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D034742:Electronic Mail; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D008297:Male; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care; D061108:Social Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D060145:Text Messaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: community health centers; medically underserved area; social media