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Using social media for male sexual health: what do we miss? A perspective article on good practices and missing evidence

International Journal of Impotence Research (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Social media are popular and play a key role in influencing, informing, and stimulating users in their everyday lives. People (especially adolescents and young adults) increasingly use social media to get and share sexual health-related information. Studies have shown encouraging results on using social media for sexual health communication improving attitudes and behaviors, although the current quality of studies makes them little reliable. In fact, literature shows how research on social media and sexual health communication has many limitations and unexplored areas, especially for male users. What can we do as sexual health professionals to improve in this field? The answer is simple: engage in better communication and do more research, starting from the users’ needs. There is the urgency to embrace these new ways of information among professionals in order to improve access to better care. In this perspective article, authors will present and discuss some of the evidence on the use of social media in male sexual health and offer some suggestions on how to communicate better in these platforms.

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Funding

This study received no external funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Filippo Maria Nimbi, Livio Ricciardi, Roberta Galizia & Vittorio Lingiardi

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  1. Filippo Maria Nimbi
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  2. Livio Ricciardi
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  3. Roberta Galizia
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  4. Vittorio Lingiardi
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Contributions

FMN and VT originated the idea and design for the current work. FMN, LR and RG conducted literature searches, provided summaries of previous research studies, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. FMN and VT revised the final draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Filippo Maria Nimbi.

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Nimbi, F.M., Ricciardi, L., Galizia, R. et al. Using social media for male sexual health: what do we miss? A perspective article on good practices and missing evidence. Int J Impot Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-024-00854-1

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