Pediatric rheumatology on social media: experts ensure accuracy, public drives engagement - a comparative analysis

We aimed to investigate the quality and characteristics of content related to pediatric rheumatology on social media, comparing posts by health professionals (HPs) and non-HP (NHPs). Content creators, engagement metrics, sentiment, and misinformation were evaluated in the 150 most popular posts from 18 hashtags related to pediatric rheumatology on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. The Journal of American Medical Association Benchmark Scale (JAMA) and the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for Audiovisual Materials (PEMAT-A/V) were used to assess quality, understandability and actionability in educational videos, respectively. Overall, 6723 posts were included (3130 photos, 3593 videos). The content accounted for 37.6 million interactions and 520.8 million views. NHPs represented the majority of creators (5160, 76.8%). Among educational posts (2074, 30.8%), HPs provided longer (59 [IQR 85] sec vs. 50 [IQR 77] sec; p < 0.001) more understandable (PEMAT-A/V 85.7 [IQR 18.9] vs. 75 [IQR 25]; p < 0.001), more actionable (PEMAT-A/V 66.7 [IQR 33.3] vs. 50 [IQR 41.7]; p < 0.001), and higher-quality (JAMA 3 [IQR 0] vs. 3 [IQR 1]; p < 0.001) videos than NHPs. In contrast, NHPs shared more commented educational photos (3 [IQR 11] vs. 1 [IQR 8]; p < 0.001) and videos (8 [IQR 50] vs. 4 [IQR 27]; p < 0.001) and more viewed videos (6181 [IQR 23417] vs. 2967.5 [IQR 20943]; p = 0.034) than HPs. Despite high interest in content related to pediatric rheumatology on social media, HPs are a minority of creators but provide better educational content than NHPs. There is a significant opportunity to provide high-quality educational content through these popular digital platforms.