↓ Skip to main content

How the public uses social media wechat to obtain health information in china: a survey study

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, July 2017
Altmetric Badge

Mentioned by

twitter
1 X user

Citations

dimensions_citation
284 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
188 Mendeley
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
How the public uses social media wechat to obtain health information in china: a survey study
Published in
BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, July 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12911-017-0470-0
Pubmed ID
Authors

Xingting Zhang, Dong Wen, Jun Liang, Jianbo Lei

Abstract

On average, 570 million users, 93% in China's first-tier cities, log on to WeChat every day. WeChat has become the most widely and frequently used social media in China, and has been profoundly integrated into the daily life of many Chinese people. A variety of health-related information may be found on WeChat. The objective of this study is to understand how the general public views the impact of the rapidly emerging social media on health information acquisition. A self-administered questionnaire was designed, distributed, collected, and analyzed utilizing the online survey tool Sojump. WeChat was adopted to randomly release the questionnaires using convenience sampling and collect the results after a certain amount of time. (1) A total of 1636 questionnaires (WeChat customers) were collected from 32 provinces. (2) The primary means by which respondents received health education was via the Internet (71.79%). Baidu and WeChat were the top 2 search tools utilized (90.71% and 28.30%, respectively). Only 12.41% of respondents were satisfied with their online health information search. (3) Almost all had seen (98.35%) or read (97.68%) health information; however, only 14.43% believed that WeChat health information could improve health. Nearly one-third frequently received and read health information through WeChat. WeChat was selected (63.26%) as the most expected means for obtaining health information. (4) The major concerns regarding health information through WeChat included the following: excessively homogeneous information, the lack of a guarantee of professionalism, and the presence of advertisements. (5) Finally, the general public was most interested in individualized and interactive health information by managing clinicians, they will highly benefit from using social media rather than Internet search tools. The current state of health acquisition proves worrisome. The public has a high chance to access health information via WeChat. The growing popularity of interactive social platforms (e.g. WeChat) presents a variety of challenges and opportunities with respect to public health acquisition.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profile of 1 X user who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 188 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 188 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 29 15%
Student > Ph. D. Student 20 11%
Researcher 12 6%
Student > Bachelor 11 6%
Lecturer 9 5%
Other 24 13%
Unknown 83 44%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Social Sciences 25 13%
Nursing and Health Professions 14 7%
Medicine and Dentistry 13 7%
Business, Management and Accounting 11 6%
Arts and Humanities 6 3%
Other 28 15%
Unknown 91 48%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 13 July 2017.
All research outputs
#20,434,884
of 22,988,380 outputs
Outputs from BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
#1,815
of 2,003 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#273,184
of 313,314 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
#37
of 41 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,988,380 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,003 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.9. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 313,314 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 41 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.