Co-Designing a Framework for Social Media Health Communication to Young People: A Participatory Research Study

Social media became a key communication channel for public health agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for reaching younger populations less engaged with traditional channels. However, official social media health communication often fails to appeal to young people. Improving public health agency use of social media for health communication is vital to ensure health messages reach this priority population effectively, especially during public health emergencies.

This study aimed to co-design a social media communication framework for health messaging to young people with consideration to emergency settings. It integrated the perspectives of young people and professional stakeholders, health communicators responsible for social media messaging of government health departments.

An iterative co-design process was conducted in partnership with youth co-researchers. The framework was co-designed over three workshops with young people (18-24 years) and professional stakeholders. Workshop data were analysed collaboratively and the framework was updated iteratively following each workshop. The final framework was approved by the youth co-researchers and a new group of professional stakeholders.

Twenty-one young people and four professional stakeholders participated in workshops. Three youth co-researchers and three external professional stakeholders approved the final framework. Five recommendations for communicating health messages to young people on social media were developed following two iterations: (1) involve young people, (2) pitch at right level, (3) capture attention fast, (4) use current social media marketing techniques and (5) engage more with the public. The main barrier in emergency contexts was time constraints, but the recommendations were considered feasible if embedded in business-as-usual processes prior to the emergency.

These findings provide public health agencies a guide for health communication to young people on social media. Co-designing the recommendations centres the needs and preferences of young people, while ensuring they are feasible for professional stakeholders. By incorporating a variety of messaging approaches and actively involving young people in content development, public health agencies can better reach and engage young people, including during public health emergencies.

Young people were involved in study recruitment, workshop facilitation, data analysis and manuscript preparation as co-researchers. Methods also included co-design with young people and stakeholders.