Exploring Alzheimer's Awareness: A Content Quality and Reliability Assessment

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience and Public Health
• Digital Health Communication

Background:

• Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with significant public health implications.
• Social media platforms like Instagram are increasingly used for health communication, but content quality and reliability vary.
• Evaluating the accuracy and educational value of AD information on Instagram is crucial for public health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically evaluate the nature, accuracy, reliability, and educational quality of Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related content on Instagram.
• To determine if Instagram content is evidence-based, appropriately sourced, and suitable for public health education.
• To compare the quality and reliability of AD content based on accuracy and uploader category.

Main Methods:

• A 20-day cross-sectional observational study in January 2025 analyzed 288 Instagram posts from six popular AD-related hashtags.
• Posts were assessed for type, uploader category, content focus, factual accuracy, Global Quality Score (GQS), and Reliability Score.
• Statistical comparisons were made between groups based on content accuracy and quality.

Main Results:

• Of 288 analyzed posts, 162 (56.25%) were images and 126 (43.75%) were videos.
• Doctors and researchers were the most common uploaders (30.94% and 28.47%, respectively).
• Only 51.9% of posts in Group A were factually accurate, compared to 38.59% in Group B (P < 0.000001), with higher GQS and Reliability Scores for accurate content.

Conclusions:

• Instagram disseminates substantial Alzheimer's-related information, but overall content quality and reliability are suboptimal, with less than half of posts being factually accurate.
• Content from healthcare professionals and researchers is generally more credible than that from patients or non-medical users.
• There is a pressing need to promote evidence-based, high-quality content on Instagram to improve public understanding and support for Alzheimer's disease.