title: The Role of Social Media in Promoting Women's Health Education in Saudi Arabia.
abstract: Social media has the potential to improve women's health in developing countries through health education and promotion. In the Arab world, women's health interventions are lacking. However, with a high penetration rate of social media in the Arab world, there is good opportunity to utilize social media platforms such as Twitter to promote women's health. In this paper, we analyze the Tweet feeds of Saudi-based Twitter account to promote women's health. A total of 5167 Tweets were extracted and analyzed retrospectively, using NVivo Ncapture between June 2014 and March 2015. There were a total number of 3449 followers by March 20, 2015. Results showed that a majority of the Twitter followers (61%, n=2104) were seeking gynecological information, followed by pregnancy related information (27%, n=931), breast-feeding advice (9%, n=310), and other health related information (3%, n=103). Results also showed an increased level of health awareness and comprehension among Twitter followers. Further research is needed to promote women's health in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world through social media platforms such as Twitter and similar platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube which are also popular in the Arab world.
authors.affiliation: College of Public Health and Health Informatics, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs (MNGHA), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Salwa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bahkali
authors.affiliation: Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Almaiman
authors.affiliation: King Abdulaziz Medical city, Ministry of national Guard, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Ahlam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bahkali
authors.affiliation: Riyadh college of Dentistry and Pharmacy, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Almaiman
authors.affiliation: College of Public Health and Health Informatics, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs (MNGHA), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mowafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Househ
authors.affiliation: King Abdulaziz Medical city, Ministry of national Guard, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Khaled
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Alsurimi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D018912:Arabs / Q000193:education*; D001364:Awareness; D000074522:Consumer Health Informatics / Q000458:organization & administration; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D057220:Health Literacy; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D061108:Social Media; D016387:Women's Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D055815:Young Adult