The Role of Health-Centered Social Network Sites In Improving Patients Health Knowledge

In today’s highly technological society, we have more access to information and resources than we have at any point in our history. People are heavily immersed in Web 2.0 technologies (i.e. blogs, twitter, podcasts, wikis, social network sites, video and photo sharing). In recent years online social networking has moved from niche phenomenon to mass adoption and also is coming to healthcare. OSNs are making it easier than ever for patients to find timely, personalized health information online. One such health- related social networking site that has exploded in terms of growth is Dailystrength.org. In this paper, an experimental research with pre-test / pro-test design of 400 Iran Kidney Federation patients was conducted to determine how the medicine 2.0 can influence on patient’s knowledge of different diseases and their treatments. These tests were analyzed to recognize how this kind of social dynamic is going to change the face of medicine and to investigate the downside of the new medicine 2.0. According to our results, the demographic variables – Gender and educational fields – are completely relevant to using of health- related social network.