title: [Social media monitoring of asthmatic children treated in a specialized program: Parents and caregivers expectations].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Social media has been used in support of patients with asthma. However, it remains unclear what are the expectations of parents or caregivers of asthmatic patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the expectations of parents or caregivers of asthmatic children treated at Children's Asthma Prevention Program (PIPA), Uruguaiana, RS, in relation to the use of social media.
  
  
  METHODS
  An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional survey of parents or caregivers of children seen at Children's Asthma Prevention Program through responses to a written questionnaire on the use of new technologies and different applications to enhance information about asthma.
  
  
  RESULTS
  210 parents or caregivers (median age: 25 years; age range: 18-42 years of patients were enrolled. The mean age of their children was 7.3 years (age range: 2 to 18 years), the mean duration of asthma was 4.7 years and 65% of parents/caregivers of these children had less than eight years of schooling. Most of them (72%) had no access to the Internet via cell/mobile phones and only 18% actively used to gathered information about asthma by internet. There was high interest (87%) in receiving information via social media.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Parents or caregivers of children attending the PIPA program expressed high interest in using social media. However, few use it to control their children's disease. While providing a great benefit to use social media as a mean of communication in health, the content needs to be monitored for reliability and quality. The privacy of users (doctors and patients) must be preserved and it is very important to facilitate the access to Internet.
authors.affiliation: Programa Infantil de Prevención de Asma, Uruguayana, Río Grande del Sur, Brasil. urrutiamarilyn@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Marilyn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Urrutia-Pereira
authors.forename: Jennifer Bg
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Ávila
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cherrez-Ojeda
authors.forename: Juan Carlos
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Ivancevich
authors.forename: Dirceu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Solé
keywords: Internet; asthma; control; education; social media