The positive impact of social media on the level of COVID-19 awareness in Saudi Arabia: a web-based cross-sectional survey.
Infez Med
; 28(4): 545-550, 2020 12 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-950589
ABSTRACT
In late December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic started to spread from Hubei province in China. Currently there are many affected countries worldwide, including Saudi Arabia. This study aimed to assess the use of social media as a source for COVID-19 awareness in Saudi Arabia. An online survey was conducted between 9 and 13 May 2020 and a total of 3,204 subjects participated in the survey. We used snowball sampling techniques through an online structured questionnaire. The data were cleaned, coded and analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SPSS version 25.0. A chi-square test was used to find the associations between variables. Of all participants, 75.4% had a high level of awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic. Saudi participants above 18 years old and medical practitioners showed a high level of awareness. All participants from all regions of Saudi Arabia showed a high level of awareness except for those from the northern region. The most common source of information was the official government social media, and 44.1% reported the use of Twitter. Our findings show that social media have a positive impact on the circulation of information about the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia.
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Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Surveys and Questionnaires
/
Information Dissemination
/
Pandemics
/
Social Media
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Qualitative research
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
/
Young adult
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
Infez Med
Journal subject:
Allergy and Immunology
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Saudi Arabia
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