Hypothesis / aims of study
Approximately 60% of internet users report using the internet to look for health information [1]. The growing use and accessibility of social media (SoMe) has also changed the healthcare landscape. Internet users use SoMe to seek and share health information. The easily accessible SoMe would be very useful for gaining medical information for the patients. On the other hand, there is a significant amount of commercial, biased, and misinformative content on SoMe. Accuracy and reliability of medical information is very important to patients who research information on SoMe. Thus, we examined the content of information of SoMe urological diseases on several SNS platforms.
Study design, materials and methods
Medical information on benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) was collected via You Tube, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and Google web site. Two medical students reviewed the top 40 contents in Japanese that were found for the search terms “benign prostatic hyperplasia”. The PRHISM (Principles for Health Information on Social Media: 0 to 100) and PEMAT (The Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool: 0 to 100) were used to assess reliability and accuracy for each content. The average of the scores was used and compared between each platform to evaluate the reliability and accuracy. Furthermore, the average of the scores between posters, i.e., physicians, non-physician health care providers (HCP), and non-medical providers (NMP).
Results
On PRHISM, You Tube, Instagram, X, and Google Web scored 71, 40, 28, and 70, respectively (Figure 1-a). On PEMAT, You Tube, Instagram, X, and Google Web scored 64, 50, 41, and 73, respectively (Figure 1-b). For both assessment tools, You Tube and Google web scores significantly higher than those of Instagram and X. The posters to each platform were mostly physicians on You Tube (92.5%) and Google Web (90%), NMP on X (70%), and HCP on Instagram (67.5%). The contents posted by physician (65 on PRHISM and 69 on PEMAT) scored significantly higher than those by NMP (35 and 45) and HCP (37 and 50) (Figure 2).
Interpretation of results
This study demonstrated YouTube and Google web are more reliable for medical information on BPH than X and Instagram. The contents posted by physicians achieved significantly higher scores in the reliability assessments compared to those by HCP or NMP. The contents on You Tube and Google are more reliable because it is often posted by physicians. You Tube and Google web have more detailed content than X and Instagram, which is probably another reason why they are more reliable. It is also possible that the quality of the proprietary algorithms used to show search results may vary among platforms.
Easily accessible SoMe can be very helpful in obtaining medical information for patients, but it is important to educate people on the use of SoMe so that they can obtain accurate information.