Improving Health Literacy through Instagram Reels: Insights from Healthcare Professionals' Digital Communication Strategies.
Abstract
An increasing number of healthcare professionals are sharing health-related information on social media platforms, particularly through Instagram Reels, a short-form video feature. It is worth investigating whether these videos can influence patients' health literacy and decision-making. This study employed a mixed-methods approach, inviting healthcare professionals to participate in experiments examining different Instagram Reels content strategies (educational/entertaining) and parasocial interaction levels (high/low) to explore their effectiveness in health communication. Eye-tracking technology was used to record participants' engagement patterns. The results showed that Reels with educational yet entertaining content and high parasocial interaction demonstrated better effectiveness in improving health literacy. The findings help healthcare professionals better understand content creation strategies when incorporating health-related information in their videos. It also provides medical organizations with better reference criteria when developing digital health communication strategies. This study contributes to understanding how placement strategy and parasocial interaction in health-related Reels can enhance health literacy and provides insights for healthcare professionals in creating effective health communication videos.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54663/2182-9306.2025.v.13.n.25.183-203
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Copyright (c) 2026 Chiao-Chieh Chen, Yu-Ping Chiu
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International Journal of Marketing, Communication and New Media
ISSN: 2182-9306
DOI: 10.54663/2182-9306
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