Summary
Objectives: As health information is becoming increasingly accessible, social media offers ample
opportunities to track, be informed, share and promote health. These authors explore
how social media and holistic care may work together; more specifically however, our
objective is to document, from different perspectives, how social networks have impacted,
supported and helped sustain holistic self-participatory care.
Methods: A literature review was performed to investigate the use of social media for promoting
health in general and complementary alternative care. We also explore a case study
of an intervention for improving the health of Greek senior citizens through digital
and other means.
Results: The Health Belief Model provides a framework for assessing the benefits of social
media interventions in promoting comprehensive participatory self-care. Some interventions
are particularly effective when integrating social media with real-world encounters.
Yet not all social media tools are evidence-based and efficacious. Interestingly,
social media is also used to elicit patient ratings of treatments (e.g., for depression),
often demonstrating the effectiveness of complementary treatments, such as yoga and
mindfulness meditation.
Conclusions: To facilitate the use of social media for the promotion of complementary alternative
medicine through self-quantification, social connectedness and sharing of experiences,
exploration of concrete and abstract ideas are presented here within. The main mechanisms
by which social support may help improve health – emotional support, an ability to
share experiences, and non-hierarchal roles, emphasizing reciprocity in giving and
receiving support – are integral to social media and provide great hope for its effective
use.
Keywords
web 2.0 - evidence-based health care - community-based participatory research - holistic
health - self-management
