scholarly journals Education Matters: Certified health professionals have higher credibility than non health professionals on Instagram

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-12
Author(s):  
Adnan Black ◽  
Sophie Desroches ◽  
Melissa A. Fernandez ◽  
Kim D. Raine

Social media serves as an accessible source of health information and nutrition information. Instagram, an internationally known social media platform with an average of more than 1 billion monthly active users, allows its users to create and share content. However, the credibility of the nutrition content created by users with unknown qualifications may be questionable. The objective of this study is to assess the credibility of content created by nutrition influencers on Instagram by comparing health professionals with non-health professionals.  For this study, “influencer” is defined as an Instagram user with at least 15,000 followers who promotes products, services, or ideas and who creates nutrition- or health-related content. For each influencer (n=29), two posts were selected every month from August 2018 to July 2019. Using the “Credible Information Factsheet” from the Dietitians of Canada, a credibility score based on four dichotomous criteria was created. Looking at the 24 posts of each influencer holistically, a credibility score out of 4 was calculated, with 0 being the least credible and 4 being the most credible.  Without exception, a greater proportion of health professionals compared to non-health professionals met each criterion from the “Credible Information Factsheet”. 92% of the health professionals met criteria 1 (Miracle Cure) compared to only 31% of non-health professionals. This demonstrates how the vast majority of health professionals would not promise a miracle cure, while most non-health professionals would readily promise a miracle cure. Additionally, 46% of health professionals met criteria 4 (Research-based) compared to only 19% of non-health professionals, which demonstrates how non-health professionals do not support claims with research. When looking at the total credibility scores for health professionals and non-health professionals, not a single health professional scored a total of 0, while not a single non-health professional scored a total of 4. Most importantly, health professionals had an average credibility score of 2.4, which is twice as high as that of non-health professionals (1.2).  Overall, health professionals appeared to be more credible than non-health professionals. By viewing nutrition information posted on Instagram by non-health professionals, followers potentially expose themselves to misinformation. Further research should be undertaken to validate the credibility score based on the “Credible Information Factsheet” by determining how adept the factsheet is at differentiating credibility for Instagram content.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey H. Basch ◽  
Nicole Milano ◽  
Grace C. Hillyer

Background: Social media is a driving force in the sharing of information. The purpose of this study is to describe fluoride related content on Instagram, a popular social media platform. Methods: Content categories were created and coded to better describe the nature of the posts.Data collection occurred in three sessions, two months apart. Only relevant posts that included images and had text written in the English language were included. Results: The most common topics were conspiracy theory, contained in 37.3% of posts, followed by dangers of fluoride to health (30.3%) and benefits of fluoride to teeth (28.7%). Of the posts reviewed, 96/300 (32.0%) contained pro-fluoride content while 139/300 (63.0%) posts featured anti-fluoride content. Content varied significantly between pro- and anti-fluoride posts.Conclusion: Our review of Instagram posts revealed that there were approximately 300 posts focused on fluoride related content. Of these posts, there was a higher number of anti-fluoride related content compared to pro-fluoride related content. With accessibility comes the potential for misinformation. Future efforts from medical providers need to focus on educating consumers about reliable sources for health information on the internet.


2021 ◽  
pp. 152483992110130
Author(s):  
Dannell D. Boatman ◽  
Susan Eason ◽  
Mary Ellen Conn ◽  
Stephenie K. Kennedy-Rea

Background The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is viewed as a critical tool to protect against six HPV-related cancers. Vaccination is recommended from early adolescence through age 26 years. As young people have become increasingly involved in personal health-related decisions, there is a need to tailor HPV vaccine messaging and reach this priority population on social media and digital outlets. TikTok is a growing social media platform with approximately 70% of its users between the ages of 13 and 24 years. Purpose The aim of this study was to understand HPV vaccine messaging and interactions on TikTok as a needed first step to identifying effective strategies to reach young people with important health messaging. Methods Content analysis was performed on 170 top TikToks focused on the HPV vaccine. TikToks were assessed for content, classification type, and number of interactions. Results Most TikToks were provaccine, while antivaccine TikToks had more user interactions. Cancer and prevention were the main content areas of the analyzed provaccine TikToks, while the side effects were the primary focus of antivaccine messages. Approximately 30% of all top TikToks analyzed were developed by health professionals. TikToks without an explicit vaccine opinion primarily described personal experiences and mentioned side effects most often. Implications TikTok is a growing social media platform that can be used to reach young people and encourage HPV vaccine uptake. Health professionals need to consider the interest that users have in personal experiences and address antivaccine narratives related to side effects.


Author(s):  
Albert Park ◽  
Mike Conway

Objective: We aim to explore how to effectively leverage social media for vaping electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) surveillance. This study examines how members of a social media platform called Reddit utilize topically-oriented sub-communities for e-cigarette discussions.Introduction: In recent years, individuals have been using social network sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit to discuss health-related topics. These social media platforms consequently became new avenues for research and applications for researchers, for instance disease surveillance. Reddit, in particular, can potentially provide more in-depth contextual insights compared to Twitter, and Reddit members discuss potentially more diverse topics than Facebook members. However, identifying relevant discussions remains a challenge in large datasets like Reddit. Thus, much previous research using Reddit data focused on selected few topically-oriented sub-communities. Although such approach allows for topically focused datasets, a large portion of related data can be missed. In this research, we examine all sub-communities in which members are discussing e-cigarettes in order to determine if investigating these other sub-communities could result in a better smoking surveillance system.Methods: In this study, we use an archived Reddit dataset1 that had been used in previous studies2,3. We first preprocessed the dataset, which included converting text to lower case and removing punctuation. Due to the size of the dataset (114,320,798 posts and 1,659,361,605 associated comments from 239,772 sub-communities), we identified 4 terms to extract posts or comments about e-cigarettes via a lexicon-based approach. The terms are 'e cig', 'elec cig', and 'electronic cig'. We included any partial matches in this process to cover a variation of e-cigarette terms. For example, a partial match of ‘cig’ can cover ‘cig’, ‘cigs’, ‘cigarette’, and ‘cigarettes’. We presented the Wordcloud of the names and frequencies of sub-communities, in which members discussed e-cigarettes.Results: We extracted 354,587 posts/comments that were made by 176,252 unique member IDs from 6,039 unique sub-communities. There were 6 sub-communities with more than 8,000 e-cigarette posts. The sub-communities are ‘AskReddit’ (59,939) ‘Cigars’ (51,684) ‘electronic_cigarette’ (24,393), ‘trees’ (17,752), ‘pics’ (8,792), ‘stopsmoking’ (8,589). Other notable sub-communities are ‘news’ (5,010), ‘politics’ (4,662), ‘worldnews’ (3,785), ‘science’ (3,279), ‘Drugs’ (2,967), ‘PipeTobacco’ (2,099), ‘Cigarettes’ (1,401), ‘teenagers’ (1,016), ‘AskMen’ (918), ‘Marijuana’ (826), ‘Fitness’ (818), ‘AskWomen’ (698), ‘cubancigars’ (695), and ‘vaporents’ (608). Members were participating not only in sub-communities related to smoking and smoking cessation, but also in science, news, health, teenager, and Q&A sub-communities. The overview of the sub-communities that members participated to discuss e-cigarette are summarized in Figure 1.Conclusions: We present preliminary findings concerning the various sub-communities in which members had discussion on e-cigarettes in the popular social media platform Reddit. Our initial results suggest that Reddit members openly discuss electronic cigarette-related issues in many sub-communities that are unrelated to smoking. For the purpose of e-cigarettes surveillance, understanding the discussions in unrelated sub-communities, for example the subreddit ‘teenagers’, can provide opportunities to gain an in-depth perspective on the increased use of e-cigarettes by youth or non-smoker4. Moreover, high levels of activities in Q&A sub-communities like ‘AskReddit’, ‘AskMen’, and ‘AskWomen’ could indicate ineffective information dissemination regarding e-cigarettes5, warranting further investigation. For the purpose of disease surveillance, we conclude that understanding the discussion in unrelated sub-communities has the potential to improve the practice of public health surveillance.


Author(s):  
Alisha Davies ◽  
Jiao Song ◽  
Catherine Sharp

Main AimThe Digital Health Survey was the first nationally representative survey in Wales aiming to understand the extent to which people use social media, disclose personal health related information through social media sites and different user patterns across population groups. MethodsA nationally representative household sample (n=1,252) was identified by a probabilistic sampling approach. One individual, aged 16 years and older, per household was randomly invited to complete a face-to-face questionnaire between April and June 2018. The survey collected quantitative information on use of social media platforms, perception of sharing personal health information on social media platforms, health status and socio-demographic characteristics. We tested the relationships among use, user type, demographics and health status using Chi-squared test or Fisher’s exact test correspondingly. Using estimated marginal means (and 95% confidence intervals), adjusted proportions of people who reported their use on social media platforms was calculated by adjusted mean, controlling for confounders. Results76.9% of the Welsh population engaged with social media, including 64.7% who used one or more form of social media platform on a daily basis. The most frequently used (i.e. daily) social media platform was Facebook (50.6% of the Welsh population including 23.4% used several times a day). Within the population sampled, controlling for confounders, significant higher proportion of women (91%) users were found compared to men (86%). 99.6% of 16-29 years old used social media with significant lower proportions for older age groups (i.e. 75.6% for 60-69 and 59.8% for 70+). No significant differences were found between social media engagement and deprivation quintiles. 9.6% shared personal health information on social media with friends and family, while only 2.7% shared health information with people they did not know. ConclusionPatterns in social media use are an important consideration for health promotion. The absence of a difference by deprivation groups suggests this approach may reach population more traditional routes have not. However, continued reduction in a digital divide and development of effective solutions for health via social media remains a priority.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Servet Kardeş ◽  
Çağla Banko ◽  
Berrin Akman

Bu araştırmada sığınmacılara yönelik paylaşımların yapıldığı sosyal medyada yer alan sözlüklerden birinde sığınmacılara yönelik algıya bakılmıştır. Yöntem olarak nitel desende olan bu çalışmada, bir sosyal medya sitesinde yer alan paylaşımlar içerik analizi yoluyla derinlemesine incelenip yorumlanmıştır. Araştırmanın sonucunda sosyal medya kullanıcılarının sığınmacıları büyük bir güvensizlik ortamı ve huzursuzluk yaratan bireyler olarak gördükleri saptanmış, sığınmacılarla yaşanan deneyimlerin ve medyadaki haberlerin bu düşüncelerin oluşmasında etkisinin olduğu belirlenmiştir. Bunun yanında sosyal medya kullanıcılarının devletin sığınmacılar konusunda yanlış politika izlediğini düşündükleri ve sığınmacılar için etkili bir planlama yapılmadığını ifade ettikleri görülmüştür. Çalışmanın sonuçları doğrultusunda medyada sığınmacılar hakkında çıkan haberlerde olumsuz ve şiddet temalı haberlerin azaltılması, Suriyeli sığınmacıların durumu, sahip oldukları haklar ve topluma yansımaları hakkında doğru ve bilgilendirici kamu spotları hazırlanması ayrıca sığınmacıların topluma entegre olma sürecinin her basamağında daha planlı ve etkili bir yol izlenmesi önerilebilir.ABSTRACT IN ENGLISHPerceptions about Syrian refugees on social media: an evaluation of a social media platformIn this research, posts which are about Syrian refugees were published in a social media platform, called as “sözlük” were investigated. The research is a qualitative research. The posts in this platform are analyzed with content analysis method. According to results of analyses, social media users see Syrian refugees as people who create an insecure and a restless environment. The experiences people had with them and news have an effect on this view. In addition, social media users think that government made inappropriate policies and ineffective plans about Syrian refugees. It is suggested negative news about Syrian refugees should be decreased and government should make safer policies. In addition, adaptation of refugees to society should be made in more planned and effective way.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Huiqin Zhang ◽  
Hai Lan ◽  
Xudong Chen

The Weibo social media platform in China has an important role in the value-generation process between a company and a customer. We investigated the relationship between the service quality provided on a company's Weibo page and the two dimensions of customer value cocreation behavior, namely, participation and citizenship, as well as the moderating effect of collectivism on this relationship. Participants were 354 active users of Weibo. Our findings confirmed that the service quality provided on a company's Weibo page was critical to the generation of customer value cocreation behavior. Further, collectivism moderated this relationship, with higher levels of collectivism strengthening the Weibo page service quality and customer value cocreation behavior relationship. In addition, customer citizenship behavior was positively related to customer perceptions of brand image, whereas customer participation was not. Implications for companies in the Chinese context are discussed.


GSA Today ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.J. Spencer ◽  
K.L. Gunderson ◽  
C.W. Hoiland ◽  
W.K. Schleiffarth

Author(s):  
Khyati Mahajan ◽  
Sourav Roy Choudhury ◽  
Sara Levens ◽  
Tiffany Gallicano ◽  
Samira Shaikh

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 247301142098192
Author(s):  
Garret Garofolo-Gonzalez ◽  
Cesar R. Iturriaga ◽  
Jordan B. Pasternack ◽  
Adam Bitterman ◽  
Gregory P. Guyton

Background: Digital media is an effective tool to enhance brand recognition and is currently referenced by more than 40% of orthopedic patients when selecting a physician. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of social media among foot and ankle (F&A) orthopedic surgeons, and the impact of that social media presence on scores of a physician-rated website (PRW). Methods: Randomly selected F&A orthopedic surgeons from all major geographical locations across the United States were identified using the AAOS.org website. Internet searches were then performed using the physician’s name and the respective social media platform. A comprehensive social media use index (SMI) was created for each surgeon using a scoring system based on social media platform use. The use of individual platforms and SMI was compared to the F&A surgeon’s Healthgrades scores. Descriptive statistics, unpaired Student t tests, and linear regression were used to assess the effect of social media on the PRW scores. Results: A total of 123 board-certified F&A orthopedic surgeons were included in our study demonstrating varying social media use: Facebook (48.8%), Twitter (15.4%), YouTube (23.6%), LinkedIn (47.9%), personal website (24.4%), group website (52.9%), and Instagram (0%). The mean SMI was 2.4 ± 1.6 (range 0-7). Surgeons who used a Facebook page were older, whereas those using a group website were younger ( P < .05). F&A orthopedic surgeons with a YouTube page had statistically higher Healthgrades scores compared to those without ( P < .05). Conclusion: F&A orthopedic surgeons underused social media platforms in their clinical practice. Among all the platforms studied, a YouTube page was the most impactful social media platform on Healthgrades scores for F&A orthopedic surgeons. Given these findings, we recommend that physicians closely monitor their digital identity and maintain a diverse social media presence including a YouTube page to promote their clinical practice. Level of Evidence: Level IV.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document