SynthesisBMC health services research2016
Social media use in healthcare: A systematic review of effects on patients and on their relationship with healthcare professionals.
Synthesis in BMC health services research, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 287 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
287 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 812 citations in OpenAlex.
- Strategies and prerequisites for combating health misinformation on social media: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Physician Perspectives on Internet-Informed Patients: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Pooled it
- Social media for palliative and end-of-life care research: a systematic review.BMJ supportive & palliative care · 2024Pooled it
- The role of social media on COVID-19 preventive behaviors worldwide, systematic review.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Systematic Review of mHealth Interventions for Adolescent and Young Adult HIV Prevention and the Adolescent HIV Continuum of Care in Low to Middle Income Countries.AIDS and behavior · 2023Pooled it
- When People With Chronic Conditions Turn to Peers on Social Media to Obtain and Share Information: Systematic Review of the Implications for Relationships With Health Care Professionals.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Pooled it
- The Impact of Social Media Interventions on Weight Reduction and Physical Activity Improvement Among Healthy Adults: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Pooled it
- The Empowering Role of Web-Based Help Seeking on Depressive Symptoms: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Pooled it
- Preserving professional identities, behaviors, and values in digital professionalism using social networking sites; a systematic review.BMC medical education · 2021Pooled it
- The effect of web-based educational intervention on caries-preventive oral health behaviors in pregnant women: an application of the health belief model.BMC public health · 2026Trial
- Trial
- Meningococcal vaccine information on YouTube in Türkiye: A cross-sectional analysis of content quality and reliability.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Article
- How to use social media to amplify your professional impact in respiratory medicine.Breathe (Sheffield, England) · 2026Article
- Baloxavir marboxil-related information on Douyin and Xiaohongshu: a cross-sectional analysis of content, misinformation, and user engagement.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Article
- Parent Partnership in Neonatal Research: Facilitators, Barriers and Contributions of the Irish PADDINGToN Parent Advisory Group.Child: care, health and development · 2026Article
- Real-Life Emotional Support, Social-Media-Based Emotional Support, and Loneliness Among US Adults: A Nationally Representative Study.Journal of general internal medicine · 2026Article
- ChatGPT in urogynecology: Comparing large language model responses to human experts.Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica · 2026Article
- Are Social Media Platforms an Effective Forum for Engaging Early-Onset Cancer Survivors? Insights From X (Formerly Twitter).Asia-Pacific journal of clinical oncology · 2026Article
- Care Partner Perspectives on Hypertension Management in Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias in an Online Forum: Qualitative Thematic Analysis.JMIR nursing · 2026Article
- Assessing Quality, Readability, and Transparency of Online and AI-Generated Information on Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Cross-Sectional Exploratory Study.JMIR diabetes · 2026Article
227 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSince the emergence of social media in 2004, a growing percentage of patients use this technology for health related reasons. To reflect on the alleged beneficial and potentially harmful effects of social media use by patients, the aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the extant literature on the effects of social media use for health related reasons on patients and their relationship with healthcare professionals.
methodsWe conducted a systematic literature review on empirical research regarding the effects of social media use by patients for health related reasons. The papers we included met the following selection criteria: (1) published in a peer-reviewed journal, (2) written in English, (3) full text available to the researcher, (4) contain primary empirical data, (5) the users of social media are patients, (6) the effects of patients using social media are clearly stated, (7) satisfy established quality criteria.
resultsInitially, a total of 1,743 articles were identified from which 22 were included in the study. From these articles six categories of patients' use of social media were identified, namely: emotional, information, esteem, network support, social comparison and emotional expression. The types of use were found to lead to seven identified types of effects on patients, namely improved self-management and control, enhanced psychological well-being, and enhanced subjective well-being, diminished subjective well-being, addiction to social media, loss of privacy, and being targeted for promotion. Social media use by patients was found to affect the healthcare professional and patient relationship, by leading to more equal communication between the patient and healthcare professional, increased switching of doctors, harmonious relationships, and suboptimal interaction between the patient and healthcare professional.
conclusionsOur review provides insights into the emerging utilization of social media in healthcare. In particular, it identifies types of use by patients as well as the effects of such use, which may differ between patients and doctors. Accordingly, our results framework and propositions can serve to guide future research, and they also have practical implications for healthcare providers and policy makers.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.