Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

LIVE: Thursday 27th June 2024, 18:00-19:30 (CEST)
Join our expert panel to discover why you need to understand the drivers of non-adherence in your patients, and how you can optimize medication adherence in your clinics to drastically improve patient outcomes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
Published in: BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies 1/2023

Open Access 01-12-2023 | Research

What are the ways in which social media is used in the context of complementary and alternative medicine in the health and medical scholarly literature? a scoping review

Authors: Jeremy Y. Ng, Natasha Verhoeff, Jeremy Steen

Published in: BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies | Issue 1/2023

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

Despite the increased use of social media to share health-related information and the substantial impact that complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) can have on individuals’ health and wellbeing, currently, to our knowledge, there is no review that compiles research on how social media is used in the context of CAM. The objective of this study was to summarize what are the ways in which social media is used in the context of CAM.

Methods

A scoping review was conducted, following Arksey and O’Malley’s five-stage methodological framework. MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, AMED, and CINAHL databases were systematically searched from inception until October 3, 2020, in addition to the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technology in Health (CADTH) website. Eligible studies had to have investigated how at least one social media platform is used in the context of a single or multiple types of CAM treatments.

Results

Searches retrieved 1714 items following deduplication, of which 1687 titles and abstracts were eliminated, leaving 94 full-text articles to be considered. Of those, 65 were not eligible, leaving a total of 29 articles eligible for review. Three themes emerged from our analysis: 1) social media is used to share user/practitioner beliefs, attitudes, and experiences about CAM, 2) social media acts as a vehicle for the spread of misinformation about CAM, and 3) there are unique challenges with social media research in the context of CAM.

Conclusions

In addition to social media being a useful tool to share user/practitioner beliefs, attitudes, and experiences about CAM, it has shown to be accessible, effective, and a viable option in delivering CAM therapies and information. Social media has also been shown to spread a large amount of misleading and false information in the context of CAM. Additionally, this review highlights the challenges with conducting social media research in the context of CAM, particularly in collecting a representative sample.
Literature
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Zhao X, Lampe C, Ellison NB. The social media ecology: user perceptions, strategies and challenges. Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. 2016. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1145/​2858036.​2858333.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
Ernst E. The role of complementary and alternative medicine. BMJ. 2000;321:1133–5.CrossRef
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
MacMillan C. Social media revolution and blurring of professional boundaries. Imprint. 2013;60:44–6 (PMID: 23821819).
24.
25.
Ventola CL. Social media and health care professionals: benefits, risks, and best practices. Pharm Ther. 2014;39:491–520 (PMID: 25083128; PMCID: PMC4103576).
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
Joffe H, Yardley L. Content and thematic analysis. In: Marks D, Yardley L, editors. Research methods for clinical and health psychology. London: Sage; 2004. p. 56–68.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
Lognos B, Carbonnel F, BoulzeLaunay I, Bringay S, Guerdoux-Ninot E, Mollevi C, et al. Complementary and alternative medicine in patients with breast cancer: exploratory study of social network forum data. JMIR Cancer. 2019;5:e12536. https://​doi.​org/​10.​2196/​12536.CrossRef
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
Yin J, Basch CH, Adnan MM, DottingtonFullwood M, Menafro A, Fung IC-H. Attributes of videos on YouTube related to cupping therapy. Altern Ther Health Med. 2018;24:32–7.
62.
63.
64.
65.
Guo SH-M, Lee C-W, Tsao C-M, Hsing H-C. A social media-based mindful yoga program for pregnant women in Taiwan. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2016;225:621–2.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
Ghenai A, Mejova Y. Fake cures: user-centric modeling of health misinformation in social media. ArXiv:180900557 [Cs] 2018.
75.
76.
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
Coberly JS, Fink CR, Elbert Y, Yoon I-K, Velasco JM, Tomayao AD, et al. Tweeting fever: can Twitter be used to monitor the incidence of dengue-like illness in the Philippines? J Hopkins APL Tech Dig. 2014;32:12.
82.
83.
84.
Frass M, Strassl RP, Friehs H, Müllner M, Kundi M, Kaye AD. Use and acceptance of complementary and alternative medicine among the general population and medical personnel: a systematic review. Ochsner J. 2012;12:45–56.
85.
86.
Goldstein MS. The emerging socioeconomic and political support for alternative medicine in the United States. Ann Am Acad Pol Soc Sci. 2002;583:44–63.CrossRef
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100.
Pariser E. The filter bubble: how the new personalized web is changing what we read and how we think. Penguin; 2011.
101.
102.
Metadata
Title
What are the ways in which social media is used in the context of complementary and alternative medicine in the health and medical scholarly literature? a scoping review
Authors
Jeremy Y. Ng
Natasha Verhoeff
Jeremy Steen
Publication date
01-12-2023
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies / Issue 1/2023
Electronic ISSN: 2662-7671
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-023-03856-6

Other articles of this Issue 1/2023

BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies 1/2023 Go to the issue

Correction

Correction: Anti-viral activity of culinary and medicinal mushroom extracts against dengue virus serotype 2: an in-vitro study

Research

Clinical effects of cognitive behavioral therapy in heart failure patients: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Correction

Correction: Protocatechuic aldehyde acts synergistically with dacarbazine to augment DNA double-strand breaks and promote apoptosis in cutaneous melanoma cells

Research

Diallyl disulfide alleviates hypercholesterolemia induced by a western diet by suppressing endoplasmic reticulum stress in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice

Research

Therapeutic efficacy of sorafenib and plant-derived phytochemicals in human colorectal cancer cells

Research

Prevalence, predictors and pregnancy outcomes of unprescribed and herbal medicine use in Ibadan, Nigeria