Build health in childhood: is it possible to promote health through a social media campaign?

Abstract Introduction Given the rise of overweight rate among Italian school-aged children (detected by the surveillance system “OKkio alla SALUTE”-WHO-COSI Italy, a communication campaign, addressed to parents, was carried out on social media to promote knowledge and encourage healthy choices to improve children's well-being. Social media allows both to inform users and to actively involve them through an exchange of ideas and opinions. The National Institute of Health, the IRCCS Burlo Garofolo and the Ministry of Health promoted this initiative. Methods The campaign consisted in the dissemination, through the institutional page “Guadagnare Salute” on FB and IG, of messages, videos and infographics about a healthy lifestyles. An evaluation plan was set up. Data considered 16/11/2022-04/12/2023 on FB. Results The campaign started on November 23rd 2022 and will end in May 2023. 33% of the published posts were sponsored. Users. In the considered timeframe, FB users increased by 78%; 86% were women aged between 35 and 54. The most significant user increase occurred during: a. the first three weeks of the social media campaign and b. after the Christmas break. Exposure. 483.926 users viewed the published contents and 15.056 visited the FB page. Involvement. What affected most the post coverage was: a. sponsorships; b. type and topic of content. The topic that most interested the users was physical activity (active mobility and physical activity in school). Some particular posts about fruit and vegetable consumption, healthy eating and sedentary lifestyle also had a high engagement rate. The topic of sugar-sweetened beverages received the most controversial comments. Conclusions Currently, there still is little evidence on the role that social media has on actually changing attitudes and health behaviors among people. The initiative aims to provide further evidence of institutional channels using social media for health promotion purposes. Key messages • Social media could be a key communication channel, especially in order to reduce inequalities. • Evidence about the effectiveness of social media as a health promotion setting is still limited.