About every other day, my aunt calls me up and shares with me a new health trend that she is starting to follow because a YouTube influencer claimed that it will slow her aging and prevent cancer. During these calls, I often find myself preparing dinner or at the grocery store. In my most recent grocery run, my decision to grab a specific brand of almond milk over another was influenced by the relayed opinions of YouTube “experts.”
With the ever-evolving impact of social media on our daily lives, we must be aware of what we say and what we read in order to best make decisions for our health. Medical misinformation is not a new problem, but its impact on countless individuals, like my aunt, continues to persist.
The development of new platforms like TikTok, Instagram, X, YouTube, etc., are incredibly valuable in many different areas of learning. However, the main purpose of these is predominantly entertainment. Unless vetted for credibility by outside trusted sources, these social hubs for watchers at home should not be considered fact.
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During my time working in a health care office before medical school, I frequently came across patients who would tell me about a new therapy they had heard about online, convinced it would lower their blood pressure and allow them to stop their prescribed medications. Although these claims often lacked evidence-based scientific backing, patients would insist on experimenting with the miracle fix. I began to notice a divide between patients and providers when situations like this would occur.
Beyond the scope of the immediate impacts on patient health, misinformation can spark broader distrust between patients and the health care system as a whole.
We are just a few years removed from the onset of one of the most trying times that we have experienced as a nation: the COVID-19 epidemic.
The clamor of medical misinformation was never as loud as it was during the early stages of COVID-19, when much was still unknown about the virus. Uncertainty and misinformation drove a wedge between many Americans and their health care providers. It’s a relationship that we are still working to rebuild.
Addressing medical misinformation is going to require a comprehensive effort from groups on multiple fronts.
Individual education is crucial for building a toolkit that patients can use to siphon through the hullabaloo and determine what is worth listening to. Community health organizations can help in this task by providing health literacy programs to the general public on a more frequent basis.
The active involvement of local physicians within these community organizations also needs to be encouraged and rewarded. This will only further bolster trust between health care providers and their community members.
Social media platforms also have a role to play, as they serve as moderators of the news and changes in health care. Guidelines can be implemented to streamline health-related content, ensuring the promotion of scientifically verified health information from credible experts. This would open the door to many interesting collaborative opportunities between health care professionals and organizations, public technology platforms and large public health authorities.
The change that could arise from this joint effort could help establish a more educated and health-conscious online community in America.
We are in this together. No one group can take it upon themselves to solve the national issue of medical misinformation. However, we can each hold ourselves responsible for the information that we choose to pass on.
Medicine is amazing and many treatments can aid in the miracle of healing. We must ensure that we are placing our hope and promotion in the treatments that will help those who need them so that the most informed health decisions are able to be made.
Mootz is a second-year medical student at Saint Louis University School of Medicine interested in the fields of preventive cardiology and health policy.
Source Y.R -#socialmedia #age #exacerbated #medical #misinformation #unfixable
2024-08-29 11:45:00
