Amplifying Children’s Environmental Health Research: Development and implementation of a social media toolkit and campaign

• In Event: 3-205 - Social Media Use in Child Development Research and Outreach Efforts

Integrative Statement

The Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers (CEHC) were established in 1998 by the National Institutes of Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the goal of protecting children from environmental threats where they live, learn and play. These research programs investigate the impact of environmental exposures on children’s health and bring together collaborative teams that include basic and social scientists, pediatricians, public health professionals and community organizations. A hallmark feature of every CECH is their Community Outreach and Translation Core that focuses on outreach and engagement with their community stakeholders and in translating research from the CECH to policy and practice.

Social media is an increasingly common and important tool for outreach and communication in public health. According to the Pew Research Centers Social Media Use report, 79% of all United States (U.S.) adults accessing the internet use Facebook (68% of all adults), with 76% of these users accessing the site daily. Pew also reports that social media users in the U.S. say social media is an important way that they get science news (33%) and that they see science news on social media that they wouldn’t have seen elsewhere (44%). Despite these trends, adoption and use of social media by the network of CEHCs for research translation and community engagement has been uneven.

A Social Media Workgroup was formed in October of 2017 by members of the COTC from three CEHCs (Emory University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Southern California). The goals of the workgroup were to 1) create network capacity for utilizing social media as an outreach, engagement, and communication tool; 2) increase engagement between CEHCs across the network; and 3) increase reach and engagement of CEHC social media efforts with their target community stakeholders and the general public.

A social media toolkit was developed, including quality control mechanisms to assure content was properly vetted and had utilized research translation best practices, and was piloted through an outreach campaign focused on findings highlighted in the NIEHS/EPA Children’s Environmental Health Centers Prevention Research Impact Report (see Figure for example social media posts). Using a trans-theoretical model approach, the effectiveness of the pilot outreach campaign was assessed. The increase in the number and frequency of engagements between CEHCs, the initiation of social media use, and the impact and engagement of network audiences was tracked over a six month time frame. CEHC staff were surveyed on current and planned social media use and the acceptability and effectiveness of the toolkit and accompanying training. Lessons learned and opportunities for replication will be shared.

Authors

• Brenda Koester, University of Illinois at Urbana Champain
  Presenting Author

• Wendy Gutschow, University of Southern California
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nathan Mutic, Emory University
  Non-Presenting Author