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ABSTRACT
Objective: We explored attitudes, beliefs, and experiences of Canadian public health professionals (PHPs) and their personal use of Facebook to assess views of online professionalism and blurring between their professional and personal lives.
Methods: Ten public health organizations assisted in distributing an online questionnaire to their members. The questionnaire explored Facebook use, personality factors, and beliefs about online etiquette.
Results: Among 621 respondents, 77% had a personal Facebook profile. Participants were unlikely to disclose personal information on Facebook. Generally, participants felt posting workday information online was inappropriate; however, 15 and 26% thought it acceptable to vent about the general public, and post comments about people or beliefs that oppose accepted public health views, respectively. Approximately one in four participants (26%) believed that the personal use of Facebook has an impact on one's role as a public health practitioner. One in eight participants (12%) was likely to search for members of the public with whom they had previous professional contact. The need for popularity and awareness of consequences were key predictors of participants' disclosure on Facebook.
Conclusions: Overlap between the private and public lives of Canadian PHPs exists on Facebook, and highlights the potential for damage to public health credibility. Future research should evaluate any real-world impact of comments and venting (via personal Facebook profiles) on public health credibility, especially as public health continues to embrace social media for health interventions where online contact between individual employees of public health organizations and members of the general public is increased.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the public health organizations and survey participants for their support of this research and Lindsay McLaren, PhD, for her editorial comments and suggestions.
Disclaimer statements
Contributors None.
Funding Canadian Institutes of Health Research (599547).
Conflicts of interest None.
Ethics approval The study was reviewed and approved in advance by the University of Guelph Research Ethics Board and a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Cynthia Weijs
Dr Cynthia Weijs is a research fellow at the University of Calgary currently exploring public health communication and community water fluoridation. Dr Shannon Majowicz's research at the University of Waterloo, School of Public Health and Health Systems aims to prevent food-borne and related diseases in Canadian and international contexts, and to enhance public health practice broadly and within environmental health. As Associate Professors in the Department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph, Dr Jason Coe researches and teaches veterinary medicine communication and the human–animal bond and Dr Andria Jones-Bitton's research focuses on food-borne, waterborne and zoonotic diseases, and mixed methods in epidemiology. Dr Serge Desmarais' (Department of Psychology at the University of Guelph) research has examined gender norms on the perceptions of justice, close relationship, sexuality and the potentially negative aspects of social media (mostly Facebook).
Shannon Majowicz
Dr Cynthia Weijs is a research fellow at the University of Calgary currently exploring public health communication and community water fluoridation. Dr Shannon Majowicz's research at the University of Waterloo, School of Public Health and Health Systems aims to prevent food-borne and related diseases in Canadian and international contexts, and to enhance public health practice broadly and within environmental health. As Associate Professors in the Department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph, Dr Jason Coe researches and teaches veterinary medicine communication and the human–animal bond and Dr Andria Jones-Bitton's research focuses on food-borne, waterborne and zoonotic diseases, and mixed methods in epidemiology. Dr Serge Desmarais' (Department of Psychology at the University of Guelph) research has examined gender norms on the perceptions of justice, close relationship, sexuality and the potentially negative aspects of social media (mostly Facebook).
Jason B. Coe
Dr Cynthia Weijs is a research fellow at the University of Calgary currently exploring public health communication and community water fluoridation. Dr Shannon Majowicz's research at the University of Waterloo, School of Public Health and Health Systems aims to prevent food-borne and related diseases in Canadian and international contexts, and to enhance public health practice broadly and within environmental health. As Associate Professors in the Department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph, Dr Jason Coe researches and teaches veterinary medicine communication and the human–animal bond and Dr Andria Jones-Bitton's research focuses on food-borne, waterborne and zoonotic diseases, and mixed methods in epidemiology. Dr Serge Desmarais' (Department of Psychology at the University of Guelph) research has examined gender norms on the perceptions of justice, close relationship, sexuality and the potentially negative aspects of social media (mostly Facebook).
Serge Desmarais
Dr Cynthia Weijs is a research fellow at the University of Calgary currently exploring public health communication and community water fluoridation. Dr Shannon Majowicz's research at the University of Waterloo, School of Public Health and Health Systems aims to prevent food-borne and related diseases in Canadian and international contexts, and to enhance public health practice broadly and within environmental health. As Associate Professors in the Department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph, Dr Jason Coe researches and teaches veterinary medicine communication and the human–animal bond and Dr Andria Jones-Bitton's research focuses on food-borne, waterborne and zoonotic diseases, and mixed methods in epidemiology. Dr Serge Desmarais' (Department of Psychology at the University of Guelph) research has examined gender norms on the perceptions of justice, close relationship, sexuality and the potentially negative aspects of social media (mostly Facebook).
Andria Jones-Bitton
Dr Cynthia Weijs is a research fellow at the University of Calgary currently exploring public health communication and community water fluoridation. Dr Shannon Majowicz's research at the University of Waterloo, School of Public Health and Health Systems aims to prevent food-borne and related diseases in Canadian and international contexts, and to enhance public health practice broadly and within environmental health. As Associate Professors in the Department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph, Dr Jason Coe researches and teaches veterinary medicine communication and the human–animal bond and Dr Andria Jones-Bitton's research focuses on food-borne, waterborne and zoonotic diseases, and mixed methods in epidemiology. Dr Serge Desmarais' (Department of Psychology at the University of Guelph) research has examined gender norms on the perceptions of justice, close relationship, sexuality and the potentially negative aspects of social media (mostly Facebook).