Scoliosis and the Social Media: Facebook as a Means of Information Exchange

Background context: Over the last decade, the emergence of social networking websites such as Facebook have revolutionized information dissemination and broadened opportunities to engage in discussions. In particular, having been widely adopted in the younger generation, the use of this medium has become more prevalent in health disorders such as scoliosis in the adolescent population. However, the quality of information on Facebook is unregulated and variable, which may mislead patients in their decision making.

Purpose: To document the various types of information available and assess the quality of information on Facebook discussion boards using recognized scoring systems.

Study design: To evaluate the quality of information on the social network.

Patient sample: A search for the keyword "scoliosis" on Facebook was performed and the first 100 pages generated were reviewed.

Outcomes measured: SCSS and DISCERN score.

Methods: Content analysis was performed on discussion boards and personal blogs. Two independent examiners evaluated each site according to scoliosis-specific content score (SCSS) and the DISCERN criteria, both previously used instruments to judge the quality of information on the Internet pertaining to scoliosis. The SCSS range from 0 to 32 (higher score better) and the DISCERN 16 to 80 (higher score better).

Results: Of the 100 sites reviewed, 33 were discussion boards and personal blogs. Of these, the overall average SCSS was 5.7 (SD 5.8, range 0-20) and the DISCERN was 22.5 (SD 7.6, range 16-45), indicating that using general scoring systems the quality of information provided was overall poor.

Conclusion: Using recognized scoring systems to analyze Facebook pages used as discussion forums or blogs, we showed that the quality in general was poor. For modern practices to adapt to an era of information exchange via the social network, the orthopedic community should develop ways to incorporate the social media in future patient education.