Disinformation about diet and nutrition in social media. Scoping review (Preprint)

Abstract

UNSTRUCTURED Social networks have played an essential role in the dissemination of nutrition-related information for years. Objective: to conduct a review of the international literature on the use of social media in relation to diet and nutrition disinformation. Method: A search was conducted in the following databases: Medline, Web of Science and Scopus. The time frame of this study encompassed articles published from 1st of January 2017 to 13th of December 2022. The search queries were based on the following word structures: Diet ("diet" or "nutrition" OR "nutrition facts"), Information management ("misinformation" OR "disinformation"), Social media ("Twitter" OR "TikTok" OR "Instagram" OR "YouTube" OR "Facebook"). Inclusion criteria were as follows: i) articles written in English, ii) articles published in a peer-reviewed journal, iii) articles that clearly provide the methodology and results, iv) articles in which the researchers used Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook to obtain the results, v) articles published from 1st of January 2017 to 1st December 2022. Exclusion criteria were defined as i) non-research articles (editorial letters, comments, pre-prints, abstracts, proceedings, book reviews, etc.), ii) articles not focused on disinformation, iii) articles focused on social networks not listed in the inclusion criteria. Results: A total of 28 articles were included in our review. The most common social media were Instagram and YouTube, with 100% of the articles presenting some form of misinformation. In many cases, the aim was to achieve relevance rather than truthfulness. More specifically, 17 of the articles analyzed advocated miracle diets as a cure for diseases, without any scientific basis. These articles included a large number of diseases such as gout, acne, or orthorexia. Conclusion: Institutions should address misinformation when it poses a threat to public health. Since this is not happening, it is important that healthcare professionals identify themselves as such in social networks and start sharing their knowledge in these new media