Pneumonia: A Cross-Sectional Study of the Quality and Reliability of the Content on Instagram

In today's society, Instagram (Meta Platforms, Inc., Menlo Park, California, United States) has grown to be a platform of enormous importance. It has completely changed the way we connect, share, and consume content, with several active users. Instagram may be a powerful tool for education, helping to inform and raise public awareness of a range of health conditions, including pneumonia. The present paper aims to evaluate and analyze the type, quality, and reliability of information about pneumonia being shared on Instagram.

Using the hashtags  #pneumonia, #pneumoniasucks, #pneumoniatreatment, #pneumoniaawareness, #pneumoniaviral, #pneumoniaisnojoke, data regarding the type of post, number of audience reached, and type of uploader was collected from the related Instagram posts. Global Quality Scale (GQS) and DISCERN scores were used to analyze the collected data.

A total of 600 posts were initially evaluated, of which only 418 posts (69.67%) met the inclusion criteria. Images (79.7%) were the most common type of post. Hospitals (31.34%) and survivors/patients (18.9%) were the most common uploaders. There was a statistically significant difference in the quality (GQS) of posts uploaded by doctors, hospitals, healthcare organizations, patient survivors, and others (p <0.001).  Conclusions: There is a significant difference in the quality of posts uploaded by healthcare organizations compared to other groups. Government agencies and medical organizations impose tougher rules on the quality and trustworthiness of the type of healthcare-related information transmitted in order to minimize the distribution of low-quality and unreliable information.