Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Social media influencers have a powerful voice in healthcare communication. They share personal experience and treatment recommendations and advise others. Provided information can raise interest and discussion. The aim was to explore influencers who shared information about psoriasis on social media and reactions among people. On 9 June 2024, the first 1000 posts under the keyword ‘psoriasis’ were selected on Instagram platform to find out open-access accounts with a significant social media impact (more than 10 000 followers), who shares content related to psoriasis. Exclusion criteria were non-English accounts, commercial accounts and healthcare providers' accounts. Overall, 51 accounts were found and further analysis was made to define shared, most popular, and most discussed content. Popularity was assessed by ‘likes’ count under the posts and relevance by comments to posts. Content was divided into seven categories: psoriatic lesions, personal experience, motivational statements, advertisements, comorbidities (nail psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, etc.), educational information, and treatment recommendations. According to categories most popular and most discussed posts were chosen from each account of the 51 included accounts. Fifty-one influencers with an average number of 41 607.8 ± 11 633.7 followers, 94.1 (48) were females and 5.8 (3) were males. All accounts had posts about psoriatic lesions, personal experience and motivational statements. Advertisements were performed in 45.1% (23), educational information in 23.5% (12), comorbidities in 3.9% (2) and treatment recommendations in 37.3% (19). The most popular and most discussed category was treatment recommendations with a mean number of 34 029.2 ± 9095.8 likes and 4418.5 ± 881.5 comments. Majority ‘likes’ (51 153) and comments (7442) received posts about scalp psoriasis mechanical plaque removal. The second most popular and most discussed was personal experience content with a mean number of 5909.7 ± 1057.9 likes and 679.5 ± 156.5 comments. The most unpopular and avoided content was an advertisement with a mean number of 357.1 ± 42.2 likes and 26.4 ± 5.6 comments. There was a mismatch between the frequently shared content by influencers and content people are genuinely interested in. The most interesting content among people was treatment recommendations, not psoriatic lesions clinical pictures or motivational statements, which were mostly shared by influencers. The reason for the identified mismatch could be due to extended waiting for dermatologist appointments, so people are searching for treatment options on social media and discussing them. Additionally, dermatologist appointments might not provide enough time to discuss all patient’s questions, and patients discuss them on social media platforms among people, who have the same problem and experience. However, mostly liked and commented content in the therapy recommendations category does not correspond to dermatologist’s paradigm of clinical practice.
Source: British Journal of Dermatology
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $5,008
OpenAlex ID: W4405231100