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ABSTRACT
Background
With increasing sports medicine content on social media, we sought to identify the top sports medicine influencers on X (formerly Twitter) and analyse their common characteristics.
Methods
X influence scores for “Sports Medicine” were collected in November 2021 from Right Relevance. Accounts were then screened in a blind, duplicate manner for personal and X profile characteristics.
Results
Physical therapists/physiotherapists made up 48% of the top sports science and medicine influencers. Locations in the U.S. and U.K. were listed for half of the influencers. The mean h-index was 30.2 (95% CI = [24.8–35.6]) with a median of 22.0 (range = 1–101). Most individuals reported multiple practice settings (63%), with 60% associated with an academic setting. Professional (62%) and Olympic (49%) level athletics were most frequently mentioned, with soccer (48%) and rugby (30%) as the most common sports. Among 76 profiles with URLs, most were linked to personal websites (57.9%).
Conclusion
The top influencers on X consisted of accredited sports science and medicine professionals across various locations and occupations, providing ample networking and collaboration opportunities. The relatively high h-index in this study suggests sports science and medicine influencers on X are notable contributors to academic literature.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Vishal Mishra and his team at Right Relevance, Inc. (www.rightrelevance.com, Cronycle, San Francisco, U.S.A.) for providing the relevant topical influencers report used for this study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2023.2259723