The use of social media platforms by migrant and ethnic minority populations during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review

  1. Lucy P Goldsmith
  2. May Rowland-Pomp
  3. Kristin Hanson
  4. Anna Deal
  5. Alison F Crawshaw
  6. Sally E. Hayward
  7. Felicity Knights
  8. Jessica Carter
  9. Ayesha Ahmad
  10. Mohammad Razai
  11. Tushna Vandrevala
  12. Sally Hargreaves
1 evaluations Published on
Read the full article Related papers
This article on Sciety

Abstract

Objective

To determine the extent and nature of social media use in migrant and ethnic minority communities for COVID-19 information, and implications for preventative health measures including vaccination intent and uptake.

Design

A systematic review of published and grey literature following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines

Eligibility Criteria for study selection

Global research reporting the use of social media by migrants and/or ethnic minority groups in relation to COVID-19.

Data extraction

We extracted data on key outcomes, study design, country, population under study, and sample size.

Results

1849 unique records were screened, and 21 data sources included in our analysis involving migrant and ethnic minority populations in the UK, US, China, Jordan, Qatar, and Turkey. We found evidence of consistent use of a range of social media platforms for COVID-19 information in some migrant and ethnic minority populations (including WeChat, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube), which may stem from difficulty in accessing COVID-19 information in their native languages or from trusted sources. There were positive and negative associations with social media use reported, with some evidence suggesting circulating misinformation and social media use may be associated with lower participation in preventative health measures, including vaccine intent and uptake, findings of which are likely relevant to multiple population groups.

Conclusions

Social media platforms are an important source of information about COVID-19 for some migrant and ethnic minority populations. Urgent actions and further research are now needed to better understand the use of social media platforms for accessing health information by different population groups – particularly groups who are marginalised from health systems – effective approaches to tackling circulating misinformation, and to seize on opportunities to make better use of social media platforms to support public health communication and improve vaccine uptake.

Registration

This study has been registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021259190).

Related articles

Related articles are currently not available for this article.