Evaluating Social Media Platforms for Promotion of Maternal Health Awareness among Women in Nasarawa State

Abstract

The study evaluates social media platforms in promoting maternal health awareness among women in Nasarawa state, Nigeria. By identifying the types of social media platforms used by women in Nasarawa state to access maternal health information, assessing their effectiveness and examining the challenges women faced in utilizing social media platform for maternal health information. The study was guided by social cognitive theory and concepts like maternal health, social media, social media and maternal health promotion, social media and health communication were reviewed. A survey research design was adopted and data were collected from 125 women through structured questionnaire. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages. Findings show that Facebook (82.4%) is the most widely used platform for maternal health information by women in Nasarawa state, followed by Twitter (X) with 8%, WhatsApp 4%, YouTube 3.4% and Instagram 2.4%. Findings from the study shows that women in Nasarawa state use social media for maternal health awareness information with Facebook playing an important function in improving maternal health knowledge despite challenges like misinformation and high cost of data, the study concludes that social media platform plays an important part in promoting maternal health but the effectiveness of social media are underutilised. The study recommends digital literacy and community-based sensitization and training for women on social media maternal health information in Nasarawa State.