A scoping review of social media as a platform for multi-level sexual health promotion interventions

Abstract

While social media can present unique opportunities for sexual health promotion interventions that target social ecological levels beyond the intrapersonal, health promotion as a discipline has not yet fully realized the potential of these platforms. The following scoping review focuses on the use of social media in the delivery of sexual health interventions targeting the interpersonal, institutional, community, and public policy levels of the social ecological model for change. A total of 398 articles on social media-based sexual health promotion interventions were identified. From this, 67 articles were reviewed in-depth, and 24 met the criteria for inclusion. Of these, four articles described interventions that focused on changing the knowledge, attitudes or behaviour of participants at the intrapersonal level. The remaining 20 articles targeted levels beyond the intrapersonal, with an emphasis on promoting change at broader levels to create environments that support sustained behavioural change. The examples provided by the 24 studies reviewed in this scoping review demonstrate how social media can offer unique health promotion tools for creating social networks and communities to support or deliver intervention activities, as well as for connecting individuals with appropriate and contextually responsive sexual health services. This scoping review provides valuable insights into potential strategies for developing and conducting multi-level social media-based sexual health promotion interventions and identifies areas where outcome and evaluative data are needed to demonstrate impact and potential for scale-up of intervention strategies.