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M.-D. Pérez-Ledesma1,2, L.-Á. Muñoz-Sánchez1, B.-M. Martínez-Hernández1,2
1Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Licenciatura en Fisioterapia, Facultad de Medicina, Mexico City, Mexico, 2Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Programa de Maestría y Doctorado en Ciencias Médicas, Odontológicas y de la Salud, Facultad de Medicina, Mexico City, Mexico
Background: Facebook has 2.44 billion monthly active users. A recent report demonstrates that it is the dominant social media platform for young adults. And, it has become a technological source for professional physiotherapists or students to obtain health-related information or activities through professional groups. Mainly to improve their knowledge and skills and incorporate them into daily clinical practice.
Since the last decade, Facebook has been considered a potential research tool due to the expression of social interactions and behaviors. Several studies that focus on substance abuse, chronic physical illnesses, psychological conditions, or educational topics have examined these interactions.
Since the last decade, Facebook has been considered a potential research tool due to the expression of social interactions and behaviors. Several studies that focus on substance abuse, chronic physical illnesses, psychological conditions, or educational topics have examined these interactions.
Purpose: Our approach was to describe educational offerings in physiotherapy on Facebook groups. We examined posts collected over one month during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, we analyzed qualitatively comments that appear on these posts using the passive analysis method.
Methods: Two blinded researchers carried out the search strategy. The keywords were "physiotherapy" and "physical therapy" to identify groups by the Facebook search engine. Filters included public groups only and any group.
Data was collected into a spreadsheet. Duplicates, marketing or job pages, patients, or new groups (less than a year) were excluded. Within each selected group, we limit our search strategy to educational posts in physiotherapy using the following terms separately: course, conference, diploma, webinar, class, workshop, certification, training, conference, talk, seminar, congress, master, graduate. All posts that appear in June 2020 were analyzed and may be accompanied by text, image, or video.
We focused on a user-generated Facebook post and other Facebook member's interactions displayed as a chain of comments. A demographic profile such as education history and geographical location were extracted if they were publicly available data.
Data was collected into a spreadsheet. Duplicates, marketing or job pages, patients, or new groups (less than a year) were excluded. Within each selected group, we limit our search strategy to educational posts in physiotherapy using the following terms separately: course, conference, diploma, webinar, class, workshop, certification, training, conference, talk, seminar, congress, master, graduate. All posts that appear in June 2020 were analyzed and may be accompanied by text, image, or video.
We focused on a user-generated Facebook post and other Facebook member's interactions displayed as a chain of comments. A demographic profile such as education history and geographical location were extracted if they were publicly available data.
Results: The study sample included 424 posts from eight public Facebook groups, with an average of 31,103 members. The publications were offered through infographics (70%), videos (16.1%) and advertisements (13.9%), divided into different areas of knowledge, special techniques and electrotherapy (23.3%), musculoskeletal and orthopedic (20.6%), and related to COVID-19 (8%).
The registration was made through Messenger (14.2%), WhatsApp (15.5%), online forms or web pages (16.6%), and mixed (39.4%).
They were published as a course (27.9%), webinar (20.4%), workshop (13.9%), certification and diploma (9.9% each). The majority were online (67.6%). The duration was 1-5 hours (40.2%) and 6-10 hours (24.7%). They were supported by educational institutions (11%), civil association (10.5%), another institution (16.4%).
The number of speakers for each academic activity was one speaker (48.8%), and their nationality was Mexican (22.5%) or foreigners (26.5%). Regarding their basic training, they were physiotherapists (38.9%), physicians (5.4%), and they had some postgraduate or specialty. (11%).
The thematic analysis included six categories: registration and admissions, cost or investment, curricular value, report accessing problems, request scholarships, and satisfaction.
The registration was made through Messenger (14.2%), WhatsApp (15.5%), online forms or web pages (16.6%), and mixed (39.4%).
They were published as a course (27.9%), webinar (20.4%), workshop (13.9%), certification and diploma (9.9% each). The majority were online (67.6%). The duration was 1-5 hours (40.2%) and 6-10 hours (24.7%). They were supported by educational institutions (11%), civil association (10.5%), another institution (16.4%).
The number of speakers for each academic activity was one speaker (48.8%), and their nationality was Mexican (22.5%) or foreigners (26.5%). Regarding their basic training, they were physiotherapists (38.9%), physicians (5.4%), and they had some postgraduate or specialty. (11%).
The thematic analysis included six categories: registration and admissions, cost or investment, curricular value, report accessing problems, request scholarships, and satisfaction.
Conclusion(s): The current study identified rich quantitative and qualitative information related to educational offerings in physiotherapy on Facebook. This can particularly help to grant more context on how physiotherapists interact in their natural environment.
Implications: Further research on user preferences, activities, traces of behavior, and social exchanges is needed to make a better educational choice.
Funding, acknowledgements: This work was unfunded.
Keywords: Social media, Education, Physiotherapy
Topic: Education: continuing professional development
Did this work require ethics approval? No
Institution: N/A
Committee: N/A
Reason: All extracted data utilized and presented in this study were obtain from publicly accessible sources without interaction with Facebook users
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
