The Effect of Facebook on Spreading Health Awareness among university Students

A Field study on a Sample of Cihan University-Erbil Students

Abstract

This Study Seeks to Know the Impact of Facebook's influence on spreading health awareness and the sources of getting it among university students.  It also tends to determine the role it plays in spreading health awareness. The data have been collected by distributing a questionnaire consisting of 19 questions to 100 individuals (male and female students) chosen randomly.  Their answers have been analyzed with the following  results: Most of the sources for obtaining medical and health information among the respondents are from diverse sources including media, specialized medical scientific journals, family, friends and Facebook.  All these sources  contribute  by 26%   while Facebook alone  contributes by 24%  to supply respondents with health information.  36% of the respondents confirm the validity of the information they receive from Facebook, while 19% of the respondents  confirm the reliability of the health information they receive on Facebook. 38% of the respondents discover that the health information they receive from Facebook is incorrect by noticing inconsistencies and discrepancies in the information and the lack of sufficient medical evidence.  About 32% of the respondents are interested in nutrition and diet-related topics.