Evaluation of the Role of Twitter in Increasing the Awareness and Knowledge about Diabetes Among Citizens of Saudi Arabia

The objective of this research was to evaluate the role of Twitter in increasing the awareness and knowledge of diabetes among citizens of Saudi Arabia.

In this research we used a purposive sampling method and carried out a quantitative experimental study design. The participants were adults Twitter users from Saudi Arabia that had relative diabetic patients. The sample size was 200 participants, which were divided into an intervention and a control group. Each group consisted of 100 participants. The intervention group was recruited through Twitter, and the control group was recruited through WhatsApp. Data were analyzed and interpreted using statistical techniques, such as paired t-test, the simple t-test and the ANOVA.

The mean diabetes knowledge test (DKT) score of the intervention group was Mean=13.57, SD= 3.46. After the intervention process, the mean (M) increased to 17.06 and the standard deviation (SD) decreased to 2.35. According to these outcomes, the paired t-test showed that the use of Twitter had an influence on increasing diabetes awareness. Instead, for the control group, the mean (M) was 13.68, and the standard deviation (SD) was 3.72 at the baseline. During the study process, the mean (M) of the control group increased to 14 and the standard deviation (SD) augmented to 3.59. Then, according to the paired t-test, we concluded that in the control group, there was no effect on the participants’ knowledge.

The results suggested that Twitter had a positive impact on increasing awareness and diabetes knowledge among adult Twitter users in Saudi Arabia.