Healthy Body Image Intervention Delivered to Young Women via Facebook Groups: Formative Study of Engagement and Acceptability

in news •  7 years ago 

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Cancer Weekly -- Current study results on Oncology - Skin Cancer have been published. According to news originating from New Brunswick, New Jersey, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “There is increasing interest in using social media sites such as Facebook to deliver health interventions so as to expose people to content while they are engaging in their usual social media habit. This formative intervention development study is novel in describing a preliminary test of using the secret group feature of Facebook to deliver a behavioral intervention targeting users of indoor tanning beds to reduce their risk of skin cancer.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Rutgers University, “Intervention content was designed to challenge body image-related constructs associated with indoor tanning through the use of dissonance-inducing content. To evaluate engagement with and acceptability of using a secret Facebook group to deliver a healthy body image intervention to young women engaged in indoor tanning. Seventeen young women completed a baseline survey and joined a secret Facebook group with intervention content delivered via daily posts for 4 weeks. Engagement data was extracted and acceptability was measured via a follow-up survey. The study had a high retention rate (94%, [16/17]). On average, posts were viewed by 91% of participants, liked by 35%, and commented on by 26%. The average comment rate was highest (65%) for posts that elicited comments by directly posing questions or discussion topics to the group. Average intervention acceptability ratings were highly positive and participants reported feeling connected to the group and its topic. Average rates of past 1-month indoor tanning reported following the intervention were lower than the baseline rate (p=.08, Cohen d=0.47). This study is novel in demonstrating participant engagement with and acceptability of using Facebook secret groups to deliver a dissonance-inducing intervention approach that utilizes group-based discussions related to body image. The study is also unique within the field of skin cancer prevention by demonstrating the potential value of delivering an indoor tanning intervention within an interactive social media format.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “The findings suggest that Facebook metrics of intervention post engagement (ie, likes and comments) may vary based on post types and that designing specifically labeled discussion posts may be helpful for soliciting engagement as well as challenging beliefs.”

For more information on this research see: Healthy Body Image Intervention Delivered to Young Women via Facebook Groups: Formative Study of Engagement and Acceptability. Jmir Research Protocols , 2018;7(2):e54.

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from J.L. Stapleton, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Dept. of Medicine, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, United States. Additional authors for this research include S.L. Manne, A.K. Day, K. Levonyan-Radloff and S.L Pagoto.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.2196/resprot.9429. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world. Copyright 2018, NewsRx LLC

CITATION: (2018-03-06), Research Results from Rutgers University Update Knowledge of Skin Cancer (Healthy Body Image Intervention Delivered to Young Women via Facebook Groups: Formative Study of Engagement and Acceptability), Cancer Weekly, 141, ISSN: 1532-4567, BUTTER® ID: 015244052

From the newsletter Cancer Weekly.
https://www.newsrx.com/Butter/#!Search:a=15244052


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