ArticleBMC medical education2025
Physiotherapy students' trust in social-media physiotherapy influencers: implications for digital-literacy training in medical education.
Article in BMC medical education, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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6 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundHealth-professional students increasingly learn via social-media influencers, yet the factors that make these sources trustworthy are unknown. Understanding this is critical for designing effective digital-literacy curricula. We investigated physiotherapy students' behavioural (following, purchasing) and attitudinal (trust) responses to social-media physiotherapy influencers and identified factors associated with higher trust.
methodsWe conducted a cross-sectional, computer-assisted web survey of 314 physiotherapy students from Polish universities. The questionnaire captured demographics, social-media use, influencer engagement, critical-appraisal training and attitudes toward influencer content. We used ordinal logistic regression to examine how demographic, behavioural, and attitudinal variables predicted students' trust in physiotherapy influencers.
resultsMost respondents (77.4%) followed at least one physiotherapy influencer and 46% had bought products they endorsed. Overall, 61% expressed high trust. Trust in influencers was most strongly predicted by frequent information-seeking from influencers (OR = 3.54, 95% CI 2.45-5.22), perceiving them as more informative than academic staff (OR = 2.00, 95% CI 1.46-2.76), and intensive Instagram use (OR = 1.41, 95% CI 1.06-1.87). In contrast, age, study year, and prior critical-appraisal training were not significant predictors of trust. Although 62% acknowledged commercial bias, these students still reported high trust and continued engagement, revealing cognitive dissonance.
conclusionsPhysiotherapy students trust social-media influencers for professional knowledge, with platform use and perceived informativeness outweighing formal training in shaping this trust. To address this disconnect, medical-education programmes should move beyond traditional critical appraisal and embed authentic, influencer-based digital-literacy exercises that reflect students' real-world media habits and tackle credibility cues and commercial persuasion.
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