title: Interactive social media interventions to promote health equity: an overview of reviews.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Social media use has been increasing in public health and health promotion because it can remove geographic and physical access barriers. However, these interventions also have the potential to increase health inequities for people who do not have access to or do not use social media. In this paper, we aim to assess the effects of interactive social media interventions on health outcomes, behaviour change and health equity.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a rapid response overview of systematic reviews. We used a sensitive search strategy to identify systematic reviews and included those that focussed on interventions allowing two-way interaction such as discussion forums, social networks (e.g. Facebook and Twitter), blogging, applications linked to online communities and media sharing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eleven systematic reviews met our inclusion criteria. Most interventions addressed by the reviews included online discussion boards or similar strategies, either as stand-alone interventions or in combination with other interventions. Seven reviews reported mixed effects on health outcomes and healthy behaviours. We did not find disaggregated analyses across characteristics associated with disadvantage, such as lower socioeconomic status or age. However, some targeted studies reported that social media interventions were effective in specific populations in terms of age, socioeconomic status, ethnicities and place of residence. Four reviews reported qualitative benefits such as satisfaction, finding information and improved social support.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Social media interventions were effective in certain populations at risk for disadvantage (youth, older adults, low socioeconomic status, rural), which indicates that these interventions may be effective for promoting health equity. However, confirmation of effectiveness would require further study. Several reviews raised the issue of acceptability of social media interventions. Only four studies reported on the level of intervention use and all of these reported low use. More research on established social media platforms with existing social networks is needed, particularly in populations at risk for disadvantage, to assess effects on health outcomes and health equity.
authors.affiliation: Bruyère Research Institute, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Welch
authors.affiliation: Centre for Global Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Petkovic
authors.affiliation: Centre for Global Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pardo Pardo
authors.affiliation: Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rader
authors.affiliation: Bruyère Research Institute, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.|Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.|Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Ottawa, Canada.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tugwell
mesh_terms: D015438:Health Behavior; D000069576:Health Equity; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D061108:Social Media
keywords: disadvantaged populations; health equity; health promotion; public health; social media