Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Observational Study
. 2020 Nov 20;22(11):e21501.
doi: 10.2196/21501.

Use of Facebook by Academic Medical Centers in Taiwan During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Observational Study

Wei-Min Chu  1   2   3   4   5 , Gow-Jen Shieh  6 , Shi-Liang Wu  6 , Wayne Huey-Herng Sheu  4   6   7   8   9
Affiliations
Observational Study

Use of Facebook by Academic Medical Centers in Taiwan During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Observational Study

Wei-Min Chu et al. J Med Internet Res. .

Abstract

Background: The battle against COVID-19 remains ongoing, and social media has played an important role during the crisis for both communication and health promotion, particularly for health care organizations. Taiwan's success during the COVID-19 outbreak is well known and the use of social media is one of the key contributing factors to that success.

Objective: This nationwide observational study in Taiwan aimed to explore the use of Facebook by academic medical centers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: We conducted a nationwide observational study of all Facebook fan page posts culled from the official accounts of all medical centers in Taiwan from December 2019 to April 2020. All Facebook posts were categorized into either COVID-19-related posts or non-COVID-19-related posts. COVID-19-related posts were split into 4 categories: policy of Taiwan's Center for Disease Control (TCDC), gratitude notes, news and regulations from hospitals, and education. Data from each post was also recorded as follows: date of post, headline, number of "likes," number of messages left, number of shares, video or non-video post, and date of search.

Results: The Facebook fan pages of 13 academic medical centers, with a total of 1816 posts, were analyzed. From January 2020, the percentage of COVID-19 posts increased rapidly, from 21% (January 2020) to 56.3% (April 2020). The trends of cumulative COVID-19 posts and reported confirmed cases were significantly related (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.93, P<.001). Pages from private hospitals had more COVID-19 posts (362 versus 289), as well as more video posts (72 posts, 19.9% versus 36 posts, 12.5%, P=.011), when compared to public hospitals. However, Facebook pages from public hospitals had significantly more "likes," comments, and shares per post (314, 5, 14, respectively, P<.001). Additionally, medical centers from different regions displayed different strategies for using video posts on Facebook.

Conclusions: Social media has been a useful tool for communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. This nationwide observational study has helped demonstrate the value of Facebook for academic medical centers in Taiwan, along with its engagement efficacy. We believe that the experience of Taiwan and the knowledge it can share will be helpful to health care organizations worldwide during our global battle against COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Facebook; Taiwan; communication; engagement; health promotion; medical centers; social media; survey; video post.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
COVID-19 confirmed cases per week in Taiwan and Facebook posts per week by the MOHW, TCDC, and nationwide medical centers from December 2019 to April 2020. CECC: Central Epidemic Command Center; MOHW: Ministry of Health and Welfare; TCDC: Taiwan’s Center for Disease Control.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The number of "likes" on COVID-19 Facebook posts by nationwide medical centers in Taiwan, by region and ownership.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Zhu N, Zhang D, Wang W, Li X, Yang B, Song J, Zhao X, Huang B, Shi W, Lu R, Niu P, Zhan F, Ma X, Wang D, Xu W, Wu G, Gao GF, Tan W, China Novel Coronavirus Investigating Research Team A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med. 2020 Feb 20;382(8):727–733. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001017. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/31978945 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation report 115. 2020. May 14, [2020-05-15]. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/2....
    1. Huang W, Teng L, Yeh T, Chen Y, Lo W, Wu M, Chin C, Tsan Y, Lin T, Chai J, Lin C, Tseng C, Liu C, Wu C, Chen P, Shi Z, Liu P. 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Taiwan: Reports of two cases from Wuhan, China. J Microbiol Immunol Infect. 2020 Jun;53(3):481–484. doi: 10.1016/j.jmii.2020.02.009. https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1684-1182(20)30037-2 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lau H, Khosrawipour V, Kocbach P, Mikolajczyk A, Schubert J, Bania J, Khosrawipour T. The positive impact of lockdown in Wuhan on containing the COVID-19 outbreak in China. J Travel Med. 2020 May 18;27(3):1. doi: 10.1093/jtm/taaa037. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/32181488 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yang Y, Peng F, Wang R, Yang M, Guan K, Jiang T, Xu G, Sun J, Chang C. Corrigendum to "The deadly coronaviruses: The 2003 SARS pandemic and the 2020 novel coronavirus epidemic in China" [J. Autoimmun. 109C (2020) 102434] J Autoimmun. 2020 Jul;111:102487. doi: 10.1016/j.jaut.2020.102487. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/32423578 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types