Social Media and Website Use: The Experiences of Parents and Carers Accessing Care at the Oxford Craniofacial Unit

Historically, medical professionals have been the providers of specialist information about rare medical conditions. Now, increasingly, patients and the public are using the internet to access and generate information about medical diagnoses. The global nature of the internet allows patients to connect across geographical borders, and to obtain and share information that would have been previously inaccessible to them. This research investigated the use of website and social media by parents of children with craniosynostosis.

A cross-sectional survey-based design was employed. Participants were parents of children with craniosynostosis attending multidisciplinary craniofacial clinics within the Oxford Craniofacial Unit. A questionnaire was administered which assessed social media and website use adapted from the questionnaire created by Khouri and colleagues (2016) and Huggons and colleagues (2019). The surveys were administered over an 18-month period (November 2020 to May 2022).

The final sample comprised 82 parents [70 mothers; 10 fathers; 1 sister/carer and 1 parent (mother/father unspecified)]. The children were aged 11 months-16 years of age (average age 6 y and 3 mo). Children had a variety of diagnoses: 31 sagittal, 19 metopic, 14 syndromic craniosynostosis, 8 unicoronal, 6 multisuture, 3 bicoronal, and 1 unilambdoid.Results showed that 93% (n=76/82) of parents used the internet to find out more about craniosynostosis, with 72% (n=59/82) of parents specifically using social media to find out more about craniosynostosis. The social media platforms used included: Facebook 64% (n=53/82), Instagram 24% (n=20/82), Blogs 12% (n=10/82), Twitter 4% (n= 4/82), Tik Tok 2% (n=2/82), and Snapchat 0.01% (n=1/82).Parents reported that Facebook was the most helpful source of information about craniosynostosis (52%; n=43/82). Parents indicated the key timepoints they used social media included: when their child received a diagnosis (70%; n=58/82), before their child's surgery (34%; n=28/82), before their first craniofacial clinic appointment (83%; n=25/30), and when child was older (17%; n=14/84). Forty percent (n=33/82) of parents said that a diagnosis of craniosynostosis made no difference to their social media use, whereas 34% (n=28/82) of parents used social media more, and 20% (n=16/82) used it less.

Results highlight that parents use social media and other websites to access information relating to craniosynostosis. Future research should examine whether parental use of social media changes across their child's lifespan and evaluate the quality of this information.