When Kim Kardashian placed on Instagram about having an MRI of the whole body, she enthusiastically that the test can be “life -saving”, so that diseases in the earliest stages are detected before the symptoms occur.
What Kardashian failed to say was that there is no evidence that this expensive scan can bring benefits to healthy people. She also did not say that it can cause damage, including unnecessary diagnoses and inappropriate treatments.
With this message in mind, we wanted to investigate which influencers tell us about medical tests.
In a new study published today in Jama Network OpenWe have analyzed nearly 1,000 Instagram and Tiktok messages for five popular medical tests that can all do more harm than good for healthy people, including the MRI scan of the entire body.
We discovered that the vast majority of these messages was completely misleading.
5 controversial tests
Before we comment on the details of what we have found, a bit about the five tests included in our studies.
Although these tests can be valuable for some, all five bear the risk of overdiagnosis for generally healthy people. Overdiagnosis is the diagnosis of a condition that would never have caused symptoms or problems. Overdiagnosis leads to over treatment, which can cause unnecessary side effects and stress for the person, and wasted means for the health system.
As an example, estimates suggest that 29,000 cancers per year are diagnosed in Australia alone.
Overdiagnosis is a worldwide problem and it is partly powered by healthy people who have such tests. They are often promoted under the guise of early screening, as a way to “control” about your health. But most healthy people just don’t need them.
These are the five tests we have looked at:
The Full-body MRI scan Claims to test for a maximum of 500 disorders, including cancer. Yet there is no proven advantage of the scan for healthy people, and a real risk of unnecessary treatment by “false alarm” diagnoses.
The “Eiertimer” test (Technically known as the AMH, or anti-mullarian hormone test) is often false promoted as a fertility test for healthy women. Although it can be beneficial for women within a fertility clinic, it cannot reliably predict the chance that a woman who will become pregnant or will start menopause. However, low results can increase fear and fear and lead to unnecessary and expensive fertility treatments.
Multi cancer early detection blood tests are heavily put on the market as the “holy grail of cancer detection”, with claims they can screen on more than 50 cancers. In reality, clinical tests are still far removed from completed. There is no good evidence that the benefits outweigh the damage to the diagnoses of unnecessary cancer.
The intestinal microbiomest From your stool, “well -being” promises through early detection of many disorders, from flatulence to depression, again without good proof of benefits. There is also concern that test results can lead to wasted resources.
Testosterone testing For healthy men, it is not supported by any high-quality evidence, with worries, direct-to-consumer advertisements leads to men to be tested and unnecessary testosterone replacement therapy. The use of testosterone replacement therapy brings its own risk of potential damage with long -term safety in relation to heart conditions and mortality still largely unknown.
Do not believe the hype. The AMH test cannot reliably predict your chance to consider or timing the menopause. @wiserhealthcare @Healthlitlab @Conversationedu @Your_fertility https://t.co/WNF0GWDNJG
– Tessa Copp (@Tessacopp) June 14, 2023
What we have found
Together with an international group of health researchers, we have analyzed 982 posts with regard to the above tests of Instagram and Tiktok. The posts we looked at came from influencers and account holders with at least 1,000 followers, some with a few million followers. In total, the makers of the posts we recorded had nearly 200 million followers.
Even ignoring the bots, that is an enormous amount of influence (and probably does not reflect their actual reach of non-followers).
The vast majority of posts was misleading, and failed to even mention the possibility of damage resulting from one of these tests. We found:
- 87 percent of the reports mentioned test benefits, while only 15 percent mentioned potential damage
- Only 6 percent of the posts mentioned the risk of overdiagnosis
- Only 6 percent of the messages discussed scientific evidence, while 34 percent of messages used personal stories to promote the test
- 68 percent of influencers and account holders had financial interests in promoting the test (for example a partnership, cooperation, sponsorship or selling for their own profit in one way or another).
Further analysis revealed that doctors were more balanced in their posts. They were previously called the damage of the test and have less chance of a strong promotional tone.
Like all studies, ours had some limitations. For example, we have not analyzed any comments that are connected to messages. These can provide further insights into the information provided about these tests and how users of social media perceive this.
Nevertheless, our findings contribute to the growing amount of evidence that is demonstrating misleading medical information is widespread on social media.
What can we do about it?
Experts have proposed a series of solutions, including pre-bunking strategies, which means that the public proactively trains about common wrong information techniques.
However, such solutions often place responsibility on the individual. And with all the information on social media to navigate, that is a big question, even for people with sufficient health skills.
What is urgently needed is stronger regulations to prevent misleading information from being created and shared in the first place. This is especially important, since social media platforms, including Instagram, leave facts control.
In the meantime, remember that as information about medical tests that are promoted by influencers sounds too good to be true, that is probably.
Brooke NickelNHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, University of Sydney; Joshua Zadro, NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, Sydney Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney, and Ray Moynihan, Association Lecturer, Faculty of Sciences & Medicine, Bond University, Bond University, Bond University, Bond University,
This article is re -published from the conversation under a license for Creative Commons. Read the original article.
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