Social media use habits, and attitudes toward e-professionalism among medicine and dental medicine students: a quantitative crosssectional study

Scientific paper - Original scientific paper

• Author: Joško Viskić
• Author: Dražen Jokić
• Author: Marko Marelić
• Author: Lovela Machala Poplašen
• Author: Danko Relić
• Author: Kristijan Sedak
• Author: Tea Vukušić Rukavina
• Author's institution: University of Zagreb; School of Medicine; (Cabinet for Physical Education)
• Author's institution: University of Zagreb; School of Medicine; (Department of Medical Sociology and Health Economics)
• Author's institution: University of Zagreb; School of Medicine; (Department of Medical Statistics, Epidemiology and Medical Informatics)
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: BIOMEDICINE AND HEALTHCARE; Public Health and Health Care; Epidemiology
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: BIOMEDICINE AND HEALTHCARE; Public Health and Health Care; Social Medicine

Abstract (english)

Aim: To describe and compare social media (SM) use habits, and attitudes of medical and dental students toward e-professionalism and to determine their opinion on potentially unprofessional behavior and posts.
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Methods: In this quantitative cross-sectional questionnaire study, students of the University of Zagreb School of Medicine and those of the School of Dental Medicine completed a survey-specific questionnaire on the use of SM, SM habits, and attitudes toward e-professionalism.
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Results: Of the 714 collected questionnaires, we analyzed 698 (411 from medical and 287 from dental students). The most commonly used SM were Facebook (99%) and Instagram (80.7%). Unprofessional content was recognized by both groups. Medical students significantly more frequently considered the posts containing patient photos (61% vs 89.8%; P<0.001), describing interaction with a patient not revealing any personal identifiable information (23% vs 41.8%; P<0.001), and containing critical comments about faculty (53% vs 39.7%; P=0.001) to be unprofessional. Dental medicine students were significantly more open to communication through SM (39.7% vs 16.3%; P<0.001), more often reported that they would accept (41.5% vs 12.2%; P<0.001), and had accepted (28.2% vs 5.6%; P<0.001) friend requests/follows/tracks from patients, and sent friend requests/follows/tracks to their patients (5.2% vs 1.2%; P=0.002).
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Conclusion: Both groups were highly aware of e-professionalism. Dental students were more desensitized to visual representations of patients, and more prone to SM interactions with patients, which might expose them to the risk of unprofessional behavior.

• Keywords (english): Attitude; Cross-Sectional Studies; Habits; Humans; Professionalism; Social Media*; Students, Medical*
• Language: english
• Publication type: Scientific paper - Original scientific paper
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review: Peer review
• Publication version: Published version
• Journal title: Croatian Medical Journal
• Numbering: vol. 62, no. 6, pp. 569-579
• p-ISSN: 0353-9504
• e-ISSN: 1332-8166
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2021.62.569
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:105:363073
• Publication: 2021-12-31
• Document URL: http://www.cmj.hr/2021/62/6/34981689.htm
• Type of resource: Text
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2022-01-18 09:08:44