ReviewThe Permanente journal2020
Public Health Implications of Image-Based Social Media: A Systematic Review of Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Flickr.
Review in The Permanente journal, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Evaluating the Effectiveness of Internet-Based Communication for Public Health: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Pooled it
- The Potential of Instagram to Reduce Stigmatization of People with Psoriasis: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study.Acta dermato-venereologica · 2023Trial
- Public belonging on social media: psychometric validation study of the Turkish desire to belong publicly scale (DTBP).BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Pathological Processes Among Content Creators on Social Media: Scoping Review.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025Article
- Which social media platforms facilitate monitoring the opioid crisis?PLOS digital health · 2025Article
- The Development of an Instagram Reel-Based Bystander Intervention Message Among College Students: Formative Survey and Mixed Methods Pilot Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Peer-to-peer sharing in public health interventions: strategies when people share health-related personal information on social media.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2024Article
- Anxiety connects social media use to food and alcohol disturbance and disordered eating when social support is low.Eating behaviors · 2024Article
- Using co-design to develop the Adolescent Health Literacy Questionnaire for adolescents in Ireland.Health promotion international · 2024Article
- Is There An "Ideal Instagram Face" for Caucasian Female Influencers? A Cross-Sectional Observational Study of Facial Proportions in 100 Top Beauty Influencers.Aesthetic surgery journal. Open forum · 2024Article
- Postdigital health practices: new directions in medical humanities.Medical humanities · 2023Article
- Smartphone and Instagram use, body dissatisfaction, and eating disorders: investigating the associations using self-report and tracked data.Journal of eating disorders · 2023Article
- Messaging strategies for communicating health-related information in social media-a content and effectiveness analysis of organ donation posts on Instagram in Germany.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Influence of social media on the esthetic perception of the lip profile of orthodontic patients.Heliyon · 2023Article
- The impact of social media use on body image and disordered eating behaviors: Content matters more than duration of exposure.Eating behaviors · 2023Article
- Preconception care knowledge and information delivery modes among adolescent girls and women: a scoping review.Korean journal of women health nursing · 2023Article
- Longitudinal Effects of Screen Time on Depressive Symptoms among Swedish Adolescents: The Moderating and Mediating Role of Coping Engagement Behavior.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Automated classification of lay health articles using natural language processing: a case study on pregnancy health and postpartum depression.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionImage-based social media Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Flickr have become sources of health-related information and tools for health communication. No known systematic review exists that summarizes the existing research and its health implications.
methodsWe searched EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete, PubMed, and Web of Science in January 2016, April 2017, and November 2017, with the following keywords: Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, or Flickr. Only public health-related, peer-reviewed research articles were included (excluding surveys of self-reported social media use).
resultsSixty-six research articles were included. All 12 experimental studies used Instagram. Of the 54 observational studies, 38 studied Instagram; 12, Pinterest; 7, Tumblr; and 6, Flickr; some studies investigated more than 1 platform. More than half of the included articles were related to mental health and substance abuse (n = 39, 59%). Other topics included chronic diseases, infectious diseases, surgery, injury prevention, pharmacovigilance, sexual and reproductive health, and adolescent psychology with functional magnetic resonance imaging. DISCUSSION: Public health-oriented research on Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Flickr is increasing. Most observational studies investigated questions ranging from public perception of diseases or interventions (vaccination) and undesirable media exposure ("echo chamber," distorted body image, underage substance use, and pro-suicide messages) to information dissemination and online engagement (likes and comments). A few studies attempted to use image-based social media as intervention tools, but the results were mainly exploratory.
conclusionMore research is needed to study how social media users discuss health through sharing images online, and how public health professionals can communicate effectively using image-sharing social media.
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.