Instagram and Seizure: Knowledge, Access, and Perception of Circulating Information on the Internet

Introduction: Social media has many advantages as a tool in the healthcare industry. On the other hand, the disadvantages of using social media to obtain data include the unequal quality of uncontrolled and unchecked content. Our study aimed to assess the accuracy of the information on epilepsy or issues relevant to epilepsy observed on social media.

Methods: A semi-structured online questionnaire was employed, which incorporated a reliability index and a global quality index. Five different hashtags were used to obtain the Instagram posts, i.e., #seizure, #seizures, #seizuredisorder, #seizureawareness, and #seizurefree.

Results: A total of 431 Instagram posts related to seizures were collected, of which 76.8% contained true information. Moreover, 6.3% of the total posts (n = 27) contained promotional content. The data were then divided into groups A and B based on their involvement in active patient care. Statistically, group A posts had more correct information being circulated when compared to group B (p = 0.000387). Group A posts also had a statistically significant higher mean global quality score (p = 0.0033).

Discussion: This current study provides a comprehensive reference on the usage of social media in epilepsy to assess the veracity of the information on epilepsy and related topics.