2023-11-23 08:00:22
Finding health-related information via social media increases medical risk behaviors, and is associated with lower health literacy. Internet users who primarily use TikTok or YouTube to find out about medical news are, for example, more likely to not want to be vaccinated. This is what emerges from a study of the Descartes Foundation published this Thursday, November 23 by Franceinfo with the magazine L’Express.
More against vaccines and for alternative therapies
This study reveals that French people who obtain information “often” to “very often” on health topics via YouTube are almost three times more likely to have already given up medical treatment in favor of an alternative therapy (29% versus 10%). The same goes for those who get information on TikTok, there too, almost three times more likely to have already refused a recommended vaccine for themselves and/or their children, excluding Covid-19 ((51% versus 19%.) Among those who use Telegram messaging groups, there are twice as many Internet users who admit to having refused the vaccine against Covid-19 (26% versus 13%)
“The proportion of poor quality information on health topics, in particular on vaccination, but not only, on nutrition, on cancers, etc., is greater on social networks than it is in other information channels”underlines Laurent Cordonnier, sociologist and director of research at the Descartes foundation, guest of franceinfo this Thursday.
Dark chocolate to treat severe depression, a false belief spread via Facebook
“Low health knowledge and risky medical behavior are also linked to a marked sensitivity to alternative therapies and esotericism,” writes the Foundation. “Such sensitivity probably constitutes a breeding ground for beliefs favorable to the development of erroneous medical conceptions.”
Among the widespread beliefs, that “that dark chocolate could treat serious mental disorders such as depression”, notes Laurent Cordonnier*, “is a belief which is adopted by more than 50% of the population we surveyed (out of 4,000 people surveyed) and this belief, like other false beliefs in health, is correlated with the use of social networks. This is one of the pieces of information that has circulated on social networks, which has circulated on Facebook in particular.”*
The doctor, first source of information for 40% of French people
On average, 10 to 14% of people surveyed say they regularly use Facebook, YouTube or Instagram to find out about health topics. The main source of information still remains the doctor, in 40% of cases. And the study highlights that the French trust traditional information channels more than social networks when it comes to health. More than eight in ten (84%) “somewhat trust” or “completely trust” their doctor.
But the Descartes Foundation notes that the share of social networks continues to grow. She therefore suggests that these platforms promote the dissemination of quality health content, recognized by scientific and medical institutions such as the National Academy of Medicine or Inserm.
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