Informing online professional dietetics practice: The development and pilot testing of the Social Media Evaluation Checklist

Abstract

AimTo develop and pilot a tool to evaluate Australian dietitians' and student dietitians' ethical and professional practice using social media.MethodsA Social Media Evaluation Checklist was developed based on checklist development literature with a four‐staged process. Stage one included a literature review and input from an expert panel to ensure content validity. Stages two and three were to ensure face validity by categorising the checklist and pilot testing the tool. Instagram profiles and posts were audited by two authors using the checklist in the final stage to analyse ethical and professional use. An account purposely created for this study was used, and the first 25 dietitian and first 25 student dietitian profiles identified using the key words ‘dietitian’, ‘student dietitian’ and ‘dietitian student’ and the hashtag ‘#australiandietitian’ were reviewed.ResultsA total of 50 Instagram profiles and 250 posts were audited based on seven categories; (1) financial disclosure, (2) cultural awareness, (3) evidence‐based information, (4) transparency, (5) privacy/confidentiality, (6) professionalism and (7) justifiability. Areas for improvement included advertising transparency which was met in only 12% of dietitian posts, and the provision of evidence‐based information, which was met in 56% of dietitian posts and 72% of student dietitian posts.ConclusionsThis study provides insight into the ethical and professional use of social media by Australian dietitians and dietetics students. With the evolving nature of social media, guidance is required. This will ensure dietitians remain, now and in the future, the credible source of nutrition information for the public.

Digital dietetics and the era of artificial intelligence

“…In 2007, the iPhone was launched by Apple Inc and was transformational in how we communicate with each other, and after the advent of apps, has changed our professional, educational, financial and leisure behaviours. In this issue of Nutrition & Dietetics , there are articles from dietitians researching and employing communication and information technologies in their research and practice 1–5 …”

“…Three papers in the current issue concern social media 1–3 . Blogs are one of the simplest ways to engage in social media and are essentially a website where information is communicated, regularly updated and opinions can be shared rather than the more usual static informational website.…”

“…In this issue of Nutrition & Dietetics, there are articles from dietitians researching and employing communication and information technologies in their research and practice. [1][2][3][4][5] The potential of new information and communication technologies in healthcare has been increasingly realised. Digital health modalities allow for real-time two-way communications or asynchronous one-way exchanges via electronic health (eHealth) using computers, or mobile health (mHealth) using smartphones.…”

“…6 Wearable sensors and videoconferencing are increasingly used, sensors combine with apps to self-monitor blood glucose concentrations, blood pressure and heart rate to name but a few.Three papers in the current issue concern social media. [1][2][3] Blogs are one of the simplest ways to engage in social media and are essentially a website where information is communicated, regularly updated and opinions can be shared rather than the more usual static informational website. Mete and colleagues have researched the profile of a typical Australian adult who reads healthy eating blogs.…”

“…The usefulness of social media in dietetics practice goes beyond the blog as illustrated by Squires and colleagues. 2 Being aware that dietitians are using Instagram to post food and nutrition information, they created a checklist to assess the ethics and professionalism displayed in the Instagram posts of 50 dietitians and dietetics students. Of interest was that a substantial percentage of dietitians failed to indicate the source of their information, so it was unclear whether it was evidence-based.…”