{
  "abstract": "Objectives Social media is an influential source of medical information, but little is known about how posts discuss medical tests that carry potential for overdiagnosis and/or overuse. This study aimed to investigate how social media posts discuss five popular medical tests.Method Cross-sectional content analysis of posts on Instagram and TikTok discussing full-body magnetic resonance imaging, the multi-cancer early detection test, and tests for anti-Mullerian Hormone, gut microbiome, and testosterone. Using keywords on newly created accounts, posts were searched and screened until 100 posts for each test on each platform were identified (n=1000). Posts were excluded if they did not discuss one of the five tests, were not in English, or account holders had >1000 followers. Information about benefits, harms, overall tone, and other attributes (evidence, personal anecdotes, encouragement to get tested and financial interests) were summarised descriptively. Logistic regression was used to assess whether being a medical doctor, use of evidence or having financial interests influenced how tests were discussed.Results Following 18 exclusions during coding, 982 posts with a total of 194 200 000 followers were included and analysed. Across all tests, benefits were mentioned in 855 (87.1%) posts, and harms in 144 (14.7%), with 60 (6.1%) mentioning overdiagnosis or overuse. Overall, 823 (83.8%) posts had a promotional (vs. neutral/negative) tone. Evidence was explicitly used in 63 (6.4%) of the posts, personal anecdotes in 333 (33.9%), 498 (50.7%) posts encouraged viewers to take action and get the test, and 668 (68.0%) account holders had financial interests. Posts from medical doctors were more likely to mention harms (OR=4.49, CI:2.85–7.06), and less likely to have an overall promotional tone (OR=0.53, CI:0.35–0.80).Conclusions The overwhelming majority of posts on Instagram and TikTok about five popular medical tests were misleading, failing to mention important harms including overdiagnosis and/or overuse. Findings from this study are crucial to help develop strategies to mitigate potential harm and plan solutions, thus protecting members of the public from being marketed low-value tests and becoming patients unnecessarily.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Brooke Nickel"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Ray Moynihan"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark"
      ],
      "name": "Emma Grundtvig Gram"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Tessa Copp"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Melody Taba"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Patti Shih"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Management Centre Innsbruk, Innsbruk, Austria"
      ],
      "name": "Raffael Heiss"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Mingyao Gao"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Joshua Zadro"
    }
  ],
  "title": "011 Social media posts about medical tests with potential for overdiagnosis and/or overuse",
  "uid": "58e600d5-7ef3-571f-9847-a95c03a3a939"
}