Effective use of Social Media in Public Health offers a well-organized and comprehensive review of social media and its impact on people’s lives and the public health sector. Divided into sections, the book addresses the growing use (and importance) of social media in conducting and disseminating research findings and covers an array of issues from cyberbullying to diversity and inclusion. Written by health educators and practitioners for health educators and practitioners, this book is a timely resource on the topics discussed. Provides complete and comprehensive landscape of social media-based applications and their uses among diverse population groups Covers current uses and applications of social media, including coverage of issues such as cyberbullying, infodemiology, and program diversity and inclusion Includes content from authors from public health and interdisciplinary areas who deliver a holistic view of the subject matter

The use of social media in public health education/promotion has been increasing due, in part, to its ability to remove physical access and geographical barriers for users. Specifically, social media provides an outlet to increase and promote translational health communication strategies and the effective dissemination of health information and data in ways that allow users to not only utilize, but also to create and share pertinent health information. Although social media applications in public health and health promotion have yielded success in terms of generating support structures and networks for effective health behavior change, there are challenges and complications associated with use of social media that also need to be addressed (e.g., managing misinformation, ensuring compliance with privacy protection regulations). This Special Issue aims to explore social media as a translational health promotion tool by bridging principles of health education and health communication. Broadly, this Special Issue is seeking original submissions that examine: (1) the method with which social media users access, negotiate, and create health information that is both actionable and impactful for diverse audiences; (2) strategies for overcoming challenges to using social media in health promotion; and (3) best practices for designing, implementing, and/or evaluating social media campaigns and forums in public health. Special interest will be given to innovative submissions that expand and build upon traditional health education approaches with health communication theories and models. Other manuscript types of interest include relevant position papers, brief reports, and commentaries.

The Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Population Health Improvement brings together individuals and organizations that represent different sectors in a dialogue about what is needed to improve population health. On September 22, 2014, the roundtable held a workshop to discuss some of the science of health communication, audiences, and messaging, and to explore what it will take to generate widespread awareness, acceptance, and action to improve health, including through the entertainment media, the news media, and social media. This report summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop.

Public health thrives on high-quality evidence, yet acquiring meaningful data on a population remains a central challenge of public health research and practice. Social monitoring, the analysis of social media and other user-generated web data, has brought advances in the way we leverage population data to understand health. Social media offers advantages over traditional data sources, including real-time data availability, ease of access, and reduced cost. Social media allows us to ask, and answer, questions we never thought possible. This book presents an overview of the progress on uses of social monitoring to study public health over the past decade. We explain available data sources, common methods, and survey research on social monitoring in a wide range of public health areas. Our examples come from topics such as disease surveillance, behavioral medicine, and mental health, among others. We explore the limitations and concerns of these methods. Our survey of this exciting new field of data-driven research lays out future research directions.

The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

The digital world is omnipresent. The rise of the Internet, smartphones, video games, and dating apps have provided people with more information, entertainment, and communication than ever before. While technology continues to develop at breakneck speed, its results are not always positive. Addiction to the tech world has resulted in serious mental health problems, overuse injuries, privacy challenges, and worry on the part of parents and other adults about its long-term effects. With the aid of media literacy questions and terms, this collection of thought-provoking and educational New York Times articles helps readers take a critical look at the tech phenomenon.

Young adulthood - ages approximately 18 to 26 - is a critical period of development with long-lasting implications for a person's economic security, health and well-being. Young adults are key contributors to the nation's workforce and military services and, since many are parents, to the healthy development of the next generation. Although 'millennials' have received attention in the popular media in recent years, young adults are too rarely treated as a distinct population in policy, programs, and research. Instead, they are often grouped with adolescents or, more often, with all adults. Currently, the nation is experiencing economic restructuring, widening inequality, a rapidly rising ratio of older adults, and an increasingly diverse population. The possible transformative effects of these features make focus on young adults especially important. A systematic approach to understanding and responding to the unique circumstances and needs of today's young adults can help to pave the way to a more productive and equitable tomorrow for young adults in particular and our society at large. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults describes what is meant by the term young adulthood, who young adults are, what they are doing, and what they need. This study recommends actions that nonprofit programs and federal, state, and local agencies can take to help young adults make a successful transition from adolescence to adulthood. According to this report, young adults should be considered as a separate group from adolescents and older adults. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults makes the case that increased efforts to improve high school and college graduate rates and education and workforce development systems that are more closely tied to high-demand economic sectors will help this age group achieve greater opportunity and success. The report also discusses the health status of young adults and makes recommendations to develop evidence-based practices for young adults for medical and behavioral health, including preventions. What happens during the young adult years has profound implications for the rest of the life course, and the stability and progress of society at large depends on how any cohort of young adults fares as a whole. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults will provide a roadmap to improving outcomes for this age group as they transition from adolescence to adulthood.