Evaluating social media as a source of patient information regarding psoriasis treatments using the DISCERN instrument

Abstract

With almost 1 billion monthly active users, social media platforms, such as Instagram, are now commonly used for patient support, education, and outreach. With potential misinformation targeted towards patients on Instagram, we sought to evaluate the accuracy, sources, and types of information regarding psoriasis treatments posted on Instagram using the DISCERN instrument. An Instagram search was performed using the search ‘psoriasis treatment’ and the first 100 posts in search result were scored. 34.7% of the videos analyzed were produced by hospitals/healthcare professionals. Four of the remaining posts, 18% were patient testimonials, 42% promoted products, 11% were educational, and 5% were news. 94% of the posts scored as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor.’ The average DISCERN score was 28.8 out of 75 for the posts analyzed. The areas of strength among the posts were strong aims. Significant weaknesses were seen in the sources used and whether a variety of options were discussed. Overall, the quality of information regarding psoriasis treatments posted on Instagram is poor, as evaluated by the DISCERN tool, and notably is poorer than other social media platforms such as YouTube.

Keywords:

• DISCERN
• Instagram
• social media
• medical information

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).