Perineal lacerations and social media: can patients find reliable information on Instagram and TikTok?

Introduction and hypothesis Social media content related to patient experiences and education continues to grow. Information on how obstetric perineal lacerations are represented on social media is limited. Our goal is to characterize available social media content on obstetric perineal lacerations....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International Urogynecology Journal 2024, Vol.35 (1), p.183-188
Main Authors: Passarelli, Emily, Siddique, Moiuri, Fry, Laura, Hickman, Lisa, Propst, Katie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Authorship
Educational Status
Female
Gynecology
Health Personnel
Humans
Lacerations - epidemiology
Lacerations - etiology
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Obstetrics
Original Article
Pregnancy
Social Media
Social networks
Urology
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Summary:Introduction and hypothesis Social media content related to patient experiences and education continues to grow. Information on how obstetric perineal lacerations are represented on social media is limited. Our goal is to characterize available social media content on obstetric perineal lacerations. Methods This is an IRB-exempt study using publicly available data on commonly searched topics about perineal lacerations to create a list of queries for Instagram and TikTok. The ten queries and “keyword” searches with the highest number of posts were identified from this list. The 50 most recent posts were reviewed for relevance, quality of content, and authorship. Topic-relevant posts were analyzed. Results The search yielded 427 posts on Instagram and 500 on TikTok. Instagram yielded more topic-relevant posts than TikTok (94.1% vs 44.8%). Almost 50% of posts were categorized as educational. Instagram identified more patient experience-related posts (29.6%) whereas TikTok provided more humorous content (26.3%). Patients produced 27.6% of content on Instagram and 43.3% on TikTok. Physical therapists produced 18.9% of posts on Instagram and 21.9% on TikTok. They constituted the largest group of health professionals to post overall. Physician-created educational content accounted for 10.3% of posts on Instagram and 6.0% on TikTok. Conclusions Compared with TikTok, Instagram may be a more informative social media platform for educational or patient experience-related content. Given the paucity of physician-created content and given that only half of all posts are educational, providers should encourage social media engagement for community and networking purposes, while encouraging caution with regard to cosmetic products and advertisements.
ISSN:0937-3462
1433-3023
DOI:10.1007/s00192-023-05690-3