Use Of Social Media By Dental Students And Recent Alumni.

Objectives: Knowledge and perceptions of social media (SM) use for dietary information by dental students and recent alumni is important as students and alumni provide dietary counseling for oral health. Our objectives are to understand students’and alumni’s use of SM and perception of SM food and nutrition content reliability.
Methods: Methods: First (D1) and fourth (D4) year students and five-year alumni (n=213) from the College of Dentistry were invited to participate. We designed a survey to queried demographics, professional and personal SM use, sites visited for dietary information, and perceived reliability (i.e., trustworthiness) of information found on each site. The survey was administered using Qualtrix; students were given 3 weeks to complete.
Results: Participants (n=67) were 58% female, and 61% D1s, 24% D4s, and 15% alumni. Students were younger than alumni (mean±SD: 23.7±2.2 vs. 33.6±2.8 years; p<0.001). Forty-six percent of D1s, 56% of D4s, and 80% of alumni use SM for professional use. One hundred percent of D1s, 94% of D4s, and 80% of alumni use SM for personal use; 74% of D1s, 63% of D2s, and 50% of alumni spend 1-2 hours/day on SM for personal use. Facebook is the most visited SM site by students and alumni (93%); both students and alumni reported dietary information found on all SM sites as 0% reliable. Less than 40% of students and alumni use PubMed®, the Food and Nutrition Information Center® (FNIC), or ChooseMyPlate® for personal and/or professional use. Information on PubMed was classified as 33% reliable by both students and alumni, on FNIC as 43% reliable by students and 100% reliable by alumni, and ChooseMyPlate as 39% reliable by students and 67% reliable by alumni.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that students and alumni use SM for personal and professional use, and recognize the unreliability of SM sites for dietary information.