Scoliosis Surgery: A Social Media Analysis of Content, Tone, and Perspective

The purpose of this study was to analyze posts shared on social media sites, Twitter and Instagram, referencing scoliosis surgery for tone, content, and perspective of the posts.

Public Twitter and Instagram posts from November 2020 to April 2021 were isolated using the hashtag #ScoliosisSurgery or the words "scoliosis surgery." A total of 5,022 Instagram and 1,414 Twitter posts were collected, of which 500 of each were randomly selected to be analyzed by the authors for the variables previously listed.

Of the Instagram posts, 91.8% were associated with an image, and 47.8% were postoperative. 96.9% of the posts had either a positive or neutral tone. 38% delivered a progress update, and 29.9% disseminated education or sought to provide awareness. 48.6% of the posts were from the perspective of the patient. Of the Twitter posts, 60.1% contained only words, and 37.8% were postoperative. 75% of the posts had either a negative or neutral tone. 38.4% described a personal story, and 19.3% provided a progress update. 42.3% of the posts were from the perspective of the patient.

Patients reported a positive tone on Instagram, displaying their progress updates and demonstrating contentment with scoliosis surgery, and a negative tone on Twitter, showing discontentment toward inadequate access to surgery. Although both platforms were used to distribute information and provide awareness, only a small percentage of posts were from physicians and hospitals, indicating opportunities for surgeons to use social media to connect with patients.