Abstract:

This study focused on Thai health workers’ perspectives on social media and electronic health or ehealth. The aims of this study were: (1) to provide a descriptive status of health workers on e-health and social media in Thailand, (2) to identify inhibitors, and (3) to report drivers for Thai health workers in social media engagement. This study was classified as a non-experimental, quantitative research using a survey approach. The interview technique was used to collect data. The interviews were conducted during April to June 2014. The target population for this study was health workers within Bangkok and its Metropolitan and other provinces in the Central Thailand. Following the “Central Limit Theorem (CLT), a sample size of thirty-five Thai health workers was randomly selected using a random sampling method with replacement. The findings indicated that nearly all Thai health workers used social media with their work. Thai health workers already used social media to connect with others and patients. The social media platforms were selected based on their familiarity by the health workers. Personal computers (PCs), smartphones, and notebooks were the top three devices to access social media. Facebook, LINE, and Google+ were the top three platforms. “receive other helpful news and interests”, “receive information of the organization” were the top three benefits of social media. Finally, “ethical problems in using social media”, contents of negative criticisms on the organization” and “lack of content management” were seen by Thai health workers as the inhibitors of social media in Thailand.