Work

The Transplantgram Revolution: Instagram’s Influence on the Perception and Promotion of Organ Transplantation

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: Social media use has increased rapidly during the past decade, revolutionizing the way clinicians and patients exchange health-related information and experiences in real time. With 2 billion global monthly users,1 Instagram allows its users to upload, edit, and share photo and video content with followers. The demographic with the highest Instagram use is US adults between the ages of 18 and 29 y (67%). Because Instagram appeals to the demographic with the highest number of medical students and residents and heavily emphasizes visual content, it has become widely recognized as an educational tool in fields of medicine that rely heavily on visual aids, such as transplantation.2 Instagram, like Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, has the potential to transform public education about organ donation and transplantation, raise awareness for organ donation campaigns, build users’ trust in the transplant system, and expand public health outreach worldwide.3,4 To characterize and better understand transplant-related Instagram content, 2 investigators queried 15 medical and nonmedical transplant-related hashtags and identified the 5 most popular posts for each as of November 10, 2022 (n = 75; Table 1). Duplicate posts, non-English posts, hair transplant posts, and posts unrelated to organ transplant were excluded. Posts were characterized according to their source, procedure, purpose, and multimedia format and analyzed using descriptive statistics. TABLE 1. - Characteristics of top Instagram posts from 15 transplant-related hashtagsa Characteristic n (%) Source Transplant recipient 19 (25.3) Organization 19 (25.3) Transplant recipient family member or friend 14 (18.7) Member of the general public 6 (8.0) Other 6 (8.0) Organ donor 4 (5.3) Waitlist candidate 4 (5.3) Medical professional 3 (4.0) Procedure Kidney transplant 14 (18.7) Organ donation 14 (18.7) Lung transplant 14 (18.7) Liver transplant 10 (13.3) Heart transplant 9 (12.0) Living kidney donation 8 (10.7) Other 6 (8.0) Purpose Family/patient testimony 32 (42.7) Organ donation awareness/finding an organ donor 17 (22.7) Entertainment 14 (18.7) Educational 12 (16.0) Media format Images 67 (89.3) Videos 7 (9.3) Both 1 (1.3) aThe following transplant-related hashtags were queried: #donatelife, #transplant, #organdonation, #kidneytransplant, #giftoflife, #organdonor, #hearttransplant, #livertransplant, #kidneydonor, #lungtransplant, #organtransplant, #doublelungtransplant, #beadonor, #transplantlife, and #kidneydonation Analysis of 75 Instagram posts yielded a total of 64 119 likes and 3799 comments. The sizeable number of likes and shares generated from this small number of posts is consistent with Instagram’s high average overall engagement rate of 0.65% (compared with Facebook’s average overall engagement rate of 0.07%).5 Content creators were primarily transplant recipients (25%), nonprofit organizations and academic institutions (ie, hospitals, research universities, organ procurement organizations, advocacy groups; 25%), and friends or families of transplant recipients (19%). The most common purposes for posting were to share family and/or patient testimonials (43%), to raise awareness for organ donation and help find potential donors (23%), to entertain (19%), and to educate the public (16%). The most common transplant-specific procedures featured or referenced were kidney transplant (19%), organ donation (19%), and lung transplant (19%; Table 1). Of the 75 Instagram posts analyzed, 30 posts (40%) encouraged organ donation. This analysis demonstrates that within transplant, Instagram is used mostly by transplant recipients, nonprofit organizations and academic institutions, and donor families and friends to exchange personal experiences, encourage and raise awareness for organ donation, and connect with other patients, families, and potential donors. Results are limited in their generalizability, because all data were collected at a single time. Additionally, our analysis excluded all non-English posts. Still, this study fills a gap in the literature by characterizing previously unstudied transplant-specific Instagram content. Further research into the effectiveness of Instagram campaigns in promoting organ donation and other transplant-specific behaviors is still needed. Instagram could be used to disseminate visually rich educational content, exchange experiences and personal narratives, raise awareness for organ donation, and expand existing social media practices for transplant candidates to identify and connect with potential living donors.

Source: Transplantation

DOI: 10.1097/tp.0000000000004731