Efficacy Information on Facebook during the 2016 Zika Virus Outbreak

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis:  In an increasingly globalized world, the threat of the rapid spread of infectious disease during times of outbreak can pose a national and international health-risk emergency. Hence, as the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication framework [1] points out, the efficient dissemination of efficacy information to encourage desirable health behaviors in such a times is paramount. Given the speed and ease of message propagation on social media, it stands as a promising mechanism to quickly disseminate health-risk related efficacy information to populations in order to mitigate negative outcomes [2]. This exploratory study thus aimed to determine to what extent  efficacy related information was included the most popular (according to engagement) posts on Facebook during the 2016 Zika virus outbreak in the Americas. RQ1: To what extent did the most popular Zika-related posts on Facebook contain efficacy related information? RQ2: What types of efficacy information did Zika-related posts on Facebook contain?

Methods:  We inserted "#Zika" into Facebook’s graph search and sampled of first hundred most popular posts from each of the 8 months in 2016 which had highest "#Zika" searches according to Google trends. Posts were coded with four binary variables for three indicators of self-efficacy (information about signs and symptoms of the disease, protective or diagnostics measures, disease transmission) and one indicator of societal efficacy (descriptions of actions to be taken by the government, schools, airports, hospitals etc. to protect a significant number of individuals from Zika). 

Results:  Results revealed low uptake of all kinds of coded types of efficacy information. Of the 800 coded posts, only 8.1% of posts contained information about signs and symptoms of the disease, 16.6 % about protective or diagnostics measures, 30.9% about disease transmission and 12.1% about societal efficacy actions. Overall, approximately half of all posts contained no efficacy information at all (51.6%), 34% contained any one, 10.1% contained any two, 3.5% contained any three and just .8% contained all four types.  

Conclusions:  The low levels of efficacy related information in the posts that people were being the most exposed to on Facebook during the Zika virus outbreak is cause for concern. Higher levels of self-efficacy may encourage people to set targeted goals and expend effort for achieving certain desirable health outcomes, and may enable them to persevere in such behaviors even when faced with obstacles to maintain them [3, 4]. On the other hand, lower levels of self-efficacy may serve as an impediment to change, especially if people feel unable or incapable of responding appropriately to a risk event [5]. Societal efficacy relates to the beliefs shared by a social group about their combined ability to solve problems and achieve collective goals [6], and is likely to play a role in helping individuals to adapt when faced with health emergency situations [7].

Implications for research and/or practice:  The findings of this study identify clear gaps and areas of improvement for organizations responsible for and looking to improve the effectiveness and impact of social media-based health risk communication campaigns during infectious disease outbreaks.  *Note: no space for references