Podcast on childhood care as educational health technology: qualitative study

Introduction: Technological advances have transformed communication, making social media essential elements that promote easy access to information. Objective: To understand the use of podcasts as an educational health technology for disseminating knowledge about child care. Materials and Methods: Online, descriptive, and exploratory study, with a qualitative approach, developed between March and April 2023, using an electronic form with 41 participants, listeners of the podcasts from a technological initiation project. The data was processed in the Interface de R pour les Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires and analyzed according to Thematic Content Analysis. Results: The use of the podcast was described as fundamental in the face of different doubts about child care. This educational technology proved enlightening, practical, accessible, and interesting, and the topics addressed were important for expanding the listeners' knowledge. Furthermore, the fact of having an audio format made consuming the content and daily tasks easier. Discussion: Changes in the participants' behavior were observed through the use of this social media, encouraging safe practices and guidance that corroborate health education practices. It has reinforced the importance of social media as a means of disseminating information to improve care practices aimed at the pediatric population. Conclusions: The podcast is an educational health technology that eases the dissemination of knowledge to the population about child care in a free, practical, and accessible way and can, therefore, be applied to health education, having an innovative character from the perspective of digital health.