Leveraging Social Media for Health Education: Dissemination of Crohn's Perianal Fistula Educational Videos via Facebook and Instagram.

Background: Crohn's perianal fistula (CPF) is a debilitating disease that significantly affects patients' quality of life. Prior research revealed substantial knowledge gaps among individuals with CPF in accessing evidence-based educational resources. We evaluated the reach and engagement of two validated CPF educational videos and a companion website (HealMyFistula.org) that was disseminated through Facebook and Instagram. Methods: A six-month social media campaign was conducted to promote the CPF educational videos and website using targeted advertising strategies to maximize reach. Primary outcomes were the proportion of users who viewed at least 50% of a video and the outbound click rate to the website. Results were stratified by age, sex, and social media platform. Results: The CPF Overview video reached 3.1 million users and had a ≥ 50% view rate of 3.31% (n = 103 463), while the CPF Treatment video reached 1.8 million users with a 1.40% view rate (n = 25 606). Older age groups showed significantly higher engagement, while females demonstrated higher view and click rates to HealMyFistula.org than males (P < .05). Facebook outperformed Instagram for the CPF Overview video, while Instagram slightly outperformed Facebook for the CPF Treatment video. Conclusions: Targeted social media campaigns can be effective in disseminating educational content. Engagement varied by video type, age, sex, and platform, showing the importance of demographically informed dissemination strategies. These findings suggest that health educational campaigns may benefit from tailoring content and dissemination strategies based on demographic engagement patterns.