Description
Millennial college students prefer communication that incorporates social media, but college educators and administrators are underutilizing these tools to reach these students. This disconnect is impacting student health and learning, which in turn presents various challenges and opportunities for college administrators. This study examined the effectiveness of using social media to deliver a tuberculosis health communication campaign targeting 18- to 24-year-old Millennial college students and assessed their preferences for sharing health information. Although the effectiveness of health communication campaigns for improving health outcomes has been well established, and the use of social media by Millennial college students has been well documented, the effectiveness of a social media based health communication campaign targeting Millennial college students has not been previously studied. One hundred fourteen Millennial students from a university in California participated in this quasi-experimental study. Using Social Presence Theory as the theoretical framework, data were collected using a Health Belief Model based instrument to measure participants' self-efficacy, likelihood of sharing the information, and preferences for obtaining health information. The study results indicate social media has a clear advantage over traditional media for affecting self-efficacy and the likelihood of sharing health information. Furthermore, participants consistently indicated a strong preference for social media over other types of media for receiving and sharing information. By quantitatively clarifying the effectiveness of social media for delivering health information, these results provide scientific rationale for college administrators to adopt social media technology as a beneficial tool for health communication campaigns targeting Millennial college students.
