An exciting research study titled “Understanding how people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) use social media for health- related purposes” has launched in the form of an online survey, to help paint a better picture about how people with RMDs around the world use social media. This study is being undertaken by a team of international researchers and patient research partners.
Social media has been gaining increasing momentum in recent years and is used by different groups to stay up to date or exchange information. Social media tools are easily accessible and independent of geographical location. Therefore, social media also provides people with chronic conditions, such as RMDs, with new opportunities to identify information about their condition(s) and treatment(s), as well as the ability to connect with other patients, carers, patient organisations and healthcare professionals.
However, despite the premise of social media for people with RMDs, it is less clear how and why people with RMDs use social media in relation to their health and wellbeing.
For this reason, we have designed a survey (available in six languages) addressed to people with RMDs to explore the use of social media and mobile technology for health-related purposes.
This survey consists of two sections:
- A general section asking about demographic data; followed by
- The main section asking about social media use and perception.
The survey is available in six languages, including: English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish.
Even if you do not consider yourself as social media user, we are interested in your perspective and opinion on the topic of social media in general. There are no correct or wrong answers, since we are only interested in your personal perspective on the topic.
The whole survey will take you approximately 20 minutes to complete. Your participation in this study is entirely voluntary, and you can withdraw at any time.
To take part in the survey, please click the following link:
https://www.soscisurvey.de/socialmediarmds/
If you have any questions, you can contact the study team at any time by emailing:
socialmedia.RMDs@gmail.com
