Trust in Dermatologists Versus Social Media Influencers Among Acne Patients

Acne vulgaris (AV) is one of the most common skin disorders, particularly affecting young people and adolescents, who are also widespread users of social media.

The objectives of this study are to understand why patients seek information about their acne from social media, their perspectives on dermatologists and social media influencers, and how social media sharing affects their views on dermatologists.

This cross-sectional study included 100 AV patients aged 18-45 who visited the dermatology outpatient clinic of Ankara Training and Research Hospital. Patients were asked to complete a 30-item survey titled "Examination of Acne Patients' Trust Levels in Social Media Influencers and Dermatologists". The survey was structured to collect data on patients' social media usage patterns, their sources of information regarding acne (including both dermatologists and social media), and the levels of trust they place in these sources. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Chi-square tests were used for analysis, with p<0.05 considered significant.

Most participants (95%) used social media for information. Eighty-one percent of the participants had a high level of trust in their dermatologist, and 97% of participants said that they would trust the dermatologist if the information from the dermatologists and social media influencers were contradictory, and 67% sought acne information from social media influencers. Instagram was the most preferred platform for this purpose (63%). The most common reason for consulting social media was to get information about cosmetic products (36%).

This study found that patients trust dermatologists more than influencers. This makes it important for dermatologists to make informative social media posts on acne. Dermatologists should also reach out to social media influencers and encourage them to share posts by consulting with experts on the topic.