Using social media to disseminate education about Alzheimer’s prevention & treatment: a pilot study on Alzheimer's Universe (www.AlzU.org)

ABSTRACTBackground: The use of social media may be a valuable tool for dissemination of patient education interventions. However, in Alzheimer's disease (AD), little data exists about the effectiveness, associated cost, or conditions for utilization.Method: Alzheimer's Universe (www.AlzU.org) is an online educational portal that provides evidence-based educational content for the public, and a variety of activities related to optimizing AD management. The primary goal of our study was to assess the effectiveness of using the social media platform Facebook.com as a tool to recruit subjects to visit AlzU.org via targeted advertising and evaluate the associated costs. Secondary outcomes included AlzU.org join rates, lesson and activity completion rates, user demographics and attitudes about the education research platform.Results: A total of $706 generated 4268 visits to AlzU.org via a series of page posts promoted with targeted advertising to individuals with previously expressed interest in ‘Alzheimer's di...