For sufferers contemplating or present process plastic and reconstructive surgical procedure (PRS) procedures, utilizing social media to collect info and reply questions can improve affected person empowerment – probably resulting in elevated autonomy and higher decision-making, reviews a examine within the April problem of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgical procedure®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The journal is printed within the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
Our examine means that connecting to social media is related to significant will increase in empowerment for PRS sufferers, and should have constructive results on patient-centered decision-making.”
Samuel J. Lin, MD, MBA, ASPS Member Surgeon of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Middle and Harvard Medical Faculty, Boston
Social media use linked to increased empowerment scores
The researchers carried out a web-based survey utilizing Amazon’s Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing platform. Of 473 respondents, about 70% had undergone some kind of PRS: beauty in 40%, reconstructive in 23%, and each beauty and reconstructive in eight %. A modified model of the Cyber Information-Decisional Empowerment Scale (CIDES) was used to discover assoiciations between social media and affected person empowerment.
About three-fourths of sufferers reported looking for cosmetic surgery info on-line at a while throughout their PRS expertise. Relying on the assets used, sufferers who obtained info on-line had increased scores for affected person empowerment.
Particularly, social media customers scored increased on six out of seven CIDES classes: affected person data; the choice to seek the advice of with a plastic surgeon and questions throughout the session; and remedy decision-making, consciousness of remedy choices, and consciousness of different remedy choices.
In comparison with these utilizing different social media platforms, Fb customers had increased scores in sure classes: resolution to seek the advice of, questions throughout session, and consciousness of different remedy choices. RealSelf, a plastic surgery-focused platform, was additionally related to elevated empowerment in remedy choices.
Plastic surgeons urged to ‘have interaction with and contribute to’ social media
Social media use had a higher impression on empowerment for sufferers present process beauty breast surgical procedure, and for reconstructive procedures on the stomach/trunk or hand. Most sufferers stated that they obtained useful info from their plastic surgeon’s workplace, though some discovered this info troublesome to learn.
“As medical care shifts towards a mannequin of patient-centered decision-making, it is vital to grasp how on-line info, and social media particularly, impacts affected person empowerment,” says Dr. Lin. “Our findings recommend that social media is usually a great tool to advertise affected person autonomy and decision-making amongst sufferers contemplating PRS procedures.” Earlier research recommend that affected person empowerment is related to improved healthcare experiences and outcomes.
Social media platforms equivalent to Fb and RealSelf supply a “forum-like interface” for sufferers to publish questions and skim opinions from different sufferers and physicians, offering a “sense of neighborhood or connection.” Dr. Lin provides: “Plastic surgeons can contribute to affected person empowerment by partaking with and contributing to social media platforms, offering info primarily based on evidence-based care, and guaranteeing that the data offered by their workplace is readable and comprehensible.”
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Journal reference:
Kinney, J. R., et al. (2024) Which Teams of Plastic Surgical procedure Sufferers Are Impacted by Social Media Use? An In-Depth Evaluation of Social Media Engagement. Plastic & Reconstructive Surgical procedure. doi.org/10.1097/PRS.0000000000010641.
