Online social media plays a crucial role in every aspect of human life - from the betterment of humans to the distress of humans. The role of social media in the health care sector is one of the emerging research topics worldwide. Misinformation in social media has an adverse effect on the physical and mental health of people worldwide. This study mainly focuses on social media and its impact on the healthcare sector in India. The misinformation and fake news in social media affected many healthcare programs run by the government and it led to the loss of human life as well as more economic burden on the government as well as the public.
An extensive literature survey focusing on the impact of social media in healthcare worldwide and a mixed method study has been done in the Indian context. A case study on the COVID-19 pandemic was done using the Twitter data analysis. The information shared in social media will have an impact on human psychological behavior. The psychological behavior may be assessed with the help of the sentiments in the Twitter data. The more is the negative sentiment in a text, the more is the psychological impact on the reader.
A questionnaire based study also conducted among the IT professionals in India during the year 2020. The study is focused on the fake news and mental health of people and the role of social media. The respondents were IT professionals in India. The IT professionals are the people who are staying away from home and having more duration of working hours. The lockdown had made them sit at home and work. That will have some major impact on their psychological behavior. The data was collected online by sending the questionnaire through social media and other applications. Smart PLS SEM analysis was done to assess the research model.
A qualitative data analysis done from the data collected from the healthcare professionals through interview mode. The psychological behavioural changes due to the corona and the resulting misinformation in the social media were taken into consideration for the study.
Qualitative and Quantitative data analysis delivered information pertaining to health care and social media. The information obtained is then processed for modeling and creating policies for improving the healthcare sector in India.