Social Media's Impact On Childhood Vaccination

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- One of the most important roles for the pediatrician or family physician in the early years of the child's life is to provide the children with vaccines on a timely basis.

In many cases this comes down the education and reinforcement when visits are scheduled.

But now there is a new report in the Journal Pediatrics which says there may be another way to help insure this happens.

In the report, the researchers found that pregnant women who received information about infant vaccination through social media during her pregnancy were more likely to have infants who were current with their vaccines.

This is one of the first studies to show how social media and interactive websites can improve care for patients through easy sources of education.

The important part of this study is that it is not limited only to vaccinations, but to all sorts of health education and clearly demonstrates the importance of emails, social media, texting, and blogs, as well as other sources of social media.