Trends of Social Media Usage by Medical Students in Addis Ababa University: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The pattern of social media usage by medical students in Ethiopia has not been clearly understood. OBJECTIVE The current study was intended to explore the trends and types of social media usage by medical students in school of medicine, Addis Ababa University. METHODS A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on four cohorts of medical students: Year II-Year V. One hundred thirty two students were recruited from each cohort, giving final sample of 528 students. Using pre-tested anonymous questionnaire, socio-demographic data and patterns in social media usage were recorded. The questionnaire was tabulated and data was analyzed by using descriptive, inferential and quantitative analytical techniques with estimations from the SPSS. A correlation of the variables was determined and X2 was used to compare the relationship of the variables. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS Majority (61.9%, N=327/528) of the study participants were males. Irrespective of sociocultural backgrounds, almost all students were active users of social media (99.6%, N=526/528). Facebook was the dominant social media used by medical students before joining medical school, followed by You Tube and Whatsapp. The number of Facebook users has been declined significantly from 82% to 47% after joining medical school. The dominancy of Facebook was over taken by Telegram after joining medical school. The use of Telegram has significantly increased from 18% (N=495/528) to (82%, N=433/528, P<0.001, CI=95) after joining medical school. The proportions of You Tube users has increased significantly from 31% (N=165/528) to 52% (N=275/528, P<0.001, CI=95) after joining medical school. Skype,Twitter, Whatsapp, and the Yahoo messenger were the least commonly used social media by both sexes. CONCLUSIONS All of the study participants had been using social media before and after joining medical school. Proper guidance and orientation by medical school authorities needed in order to make effective the usage of social media by students. CLINICALTRIAL None.