ArticleEating and weight disorders : EWD2022
#EatingDisorderRecovery: a qualitative content analysis of eating disorder recovery-related posts on Instagram.
Article in Eating and weight disorders : EWD, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Blurring the Boundaries: An Investigation of Eating Disorder Recovery Content on TikTok.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- "I Was Just Like a Sponge, Absorbing All the Wrong Information": Examining the Role of Social Media in Athletes' Eating Disorder and Recovery Experiences.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- "My eating disorder story": an interpretative phenomenological analysis of social media, narrative identity, and patient influencers in eating disorder recovery.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- 'It shows me mental health things … and keeps spamming diets': a qualitative, spatial perspective on how people with eating disorders experience algorithms shaping their movement across social media.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- 'Falling down the rabbit hole': a thematic analysis of young people's views on TikTok algorithms and eating disorder content.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Navigating an instagram community for eating disorder recovery: a qualitative study of users' motivation and confidence to change.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Reviewing the Evidence Base for Topical Steroid Withdrawal Syndrome in the Research Literature and Social Media Platforms: An Evidence Gap Map.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Review
- Adaptation of mental health first aid guidelines for eating disorders for Iran.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Motives for using social networking sites: a uses & gratifications perspective amongst people with eating disorder symptoms.Journal of eating disorders · 2023Article
- Meeting the Unmet Needs of Individuals With Mental Disorders: Scoping Review on Peer-to-Peer Web-Based Interactions.JMIR mental health · 2022Article
- The experience of treatment for eating disorders as told by content creators on TikTok.Eating disordersArticle
- Characterizing the tobacco and nicotine information environment for information seekers on YouTube.Digital healthArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeLimited research has evaluated the role of Social Networking Sites (SNS) in eating disorder (ED) recovery. While research has demonstrated the deleterious effects of pro-ED SNS content, less is known regarding SNS content documenting ED recovery. This study evaluates orientation towards help-seeking, ongoing ED warning signs and recovery themes on ED recovery SNS hashtags.
methods600 Instagram posts were retrieved from two popular hashtags: #EDrecovery and #EatingDisorderRecovery. They were categorized into four thematic concerns: Food, Quotes, People or Others. Posts were analysed for behavioural and psychological signs of ED based on the Mental Health First Aid Eating Disorders Guidelines, and whether they encouraged seeking professional help. Thematic qualitative analysis to evaluate themes posted on recovery hashtags was conducted.
resultsOf the 600 posts, 405 were used for analysis. The majority of posts were on Food (49.6%), Quotes (24.2%) and People (22.7%). Behavioural and psychological signs suggestive of EDs were present in 18.0% and 22.5% of images, respectively. Only 9.4% of posts encouraged seeking professional help. Important themes that emerged from the qualitative analysis included the recovery journey, increased awareness and stigma for EDs and the development of a supportive community.
conclusionsDespite identifying with ED recovery, posts had a high prevalence of ongoing ED behaviour and low prevalence of help-seeking. Thematic analysis emphasized the role of recovery as a journey and the role of stigma and community in recovery. These findings suggest that SNSs could potentially be leveraged as a platform to improve help-seeking and encourage recovery for users with eating disorders. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level V, descriptive study.
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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.