Abstract:
The outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) during 2014-2015 generated discussions and
exchange of information among Healthcare Practitioners (HCPs) on social media and
other platforms. These exchanges improved understanding of the disease. Previous studies
have examined the medical aspects of the disease, with little attention paid to the nature
and structure of conversations on the disease among HCPs on social media networks. This
study was, therefore, designed to investigate the characteristics, trends, knowledge
content, and relevance of conversations on EVD on the Medscape network and the
participation behaviours and roles of different categories of HCPs.
Conversation and Social Network theories guided the study, while content analysis was
adopted as the research design. Data on EVD topics and corresponding HCPs‘ posts on
the topics from March 26, 2014 to April 27, 2018 were extracted from the Medscape
network website. The data were analysed thematically, while a 1-mode network was
developed to determine the centrality measures of the nodes representing the participating
HCPs.
There were 391 EVD news topics and associated contents, and the HCPs responded to 234
of the topics which generated 7,343 conversations, while 157 topics received no
responses. The trend of EVD conversations among HCPs showed a high conversation
frequency of 6,479 (88.2%) at the peak period of EVD outbreak in 2014, but declined
thereafter. The 234 news posts that received responses were on six main themes -
management (106, 45.3%), risks (33, 14.1%), resources (29, 12.4%), treatment (25,
10.7%), transmission (19, 8.1%) and others (22, 9.4%), but the ensuing conversations by
HCPs on the topics focused mainly on EVD risks (4,679, 63.7%). Almost all the
conversations (7,230, 98.6%) were adjudged by medical experts to be relevant to the EVD
topics and contents posted on the network. A total of 3,310 HCPs participated in the
conversations, but only 95 were assessed active. Participation in the conversations by
HCPs showed that medical doctors contributed 57.4%, followed by nurses (27.5%),
pharmacists (2.2%), health/business administrators (2.2%), medical students (1.9%), and
nursing students (1.1%), while miscellaneous other categories accounted for 7.6%.
Conversations by the healthcare practitioners focused mainly on Ebola virus disease
management and risks, and were mostly relevant to the posted topics. Health agencies at
national and global levels should recognise conversations among healthcare practitioners
on social media networks as important sources of information on Ebola virus disease and
other emerging diseases.
