Portuguese National Health Service on Instagram : University students' perception of @sns_pt content in the COVID-19 pandemic

This article addresses the perceptions of university students about the Portuguese National Health Service (NHS) on Instagram (IG), which is the main profile of the country’s government on the platform. Young people are the largest audience of this social media (SM), which has been considered as a tool to promote public health. Therefore, this study aims at identifying how young adults perceive the content available in @sns_pt regarding health and well-being topics. The qualitative methodology was used, and a survey was carried out with undergraduate students from the University of Aveiro. It was applied digitally in June 2020, 90 days after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the new coronavirus pandemic. The survey presents 15 questions, divided into three axes: consumption of SM, use of IG, and posts evaluation. A total of 39 valid questionnaires were obtained. The sample is made up of students between the ages of 19 and 45 years old, being 61.5% female and 38.4% male. The results obtained show that @sns_pt is known by 43.5% of the respondents and 12.8% follow the account. Also, 10.2% reported having accessed the profile for the first time after the pandemic started. The posts focused on images attracted the attention of students, as well as the contents regarding the users’ routines.