"Mole removal" on Instagram hashtags: A cross-sectional analysis

Abstract

Introduction: With the increase in the use of social media, there is a steady increase in demand for medical, surgical, and cosmetic procedures. Dermatologists and other physicians are leaving their cosmetic practice to non-physician service providers to keep up with the growing demand for cosmetic procedures. Objectives: To examine the gender, professions, and the method of nevi treatment of the profiles using #bensilme and #moleremoval hashtags on Instagram and to investigate the extent of cosmetic procedures comparing Turkey’s situation with other countries. Methods: In Instagram, the most frequently used hashtags about nevus treatment were scanned by two dermatologists. We recorded profession, gender, country of origin, and the treatment method of nevi of profiles sharing the related posts. Results: The countries with the highest share of the #moleremoval hashtag were the United Kingdom (15%), India (12%), and the United States of America (10.5%), and the proportion of physicians in these countries was 16.7%, 100%, and 71.4%, respectively. In the non-physician group, plasma pen method in our country is the most used method (Turkey: 97.9%, world: 75% respectively), but the use of radiofrequency cautery (world: 12.5%, Turkey: 1% respectively) and cryo pen (world: 7.5%, Turkey: 0.0%) methods were significantly more abroad. Conclusions: We demonstrated that non-physicians mostly perform nevus destruction procedures. Physicians must use social media more actively to share educational, quality, and accurate information. We suggest that the hashtags used by physicians in their social media posts should be chosen from the words used in the folk language.

What Do Patients Want To See On Social Media? Evidence From A Two-Year Experiment

“…Previous research suggests that social media allows dermatologists to do social work of great significance, disseminating an evidence-based dermatological culture and influencing the habits of the most vulnerable people [10,25,26,29,33,36,37]. For this reason, many authors have encouraged dermatologists into more active participation on these platforms [5,[11][12][13]. Previous literature on the topics that dermatologists should present on social media is very scarce, but it has been suggested in the context of other aspects of social media content that dermatologists should adapt their content to the population.…”

“…Previous literature on the topics that dermatologists should present on social media is very scarce, but it has been suggested in the context of other aspects of social media content that dermatologists should adapt their content to the population. For instance, Güder and Güder [ 5 ] focused on the language used and highlighted that in order to increase visibility, dermatologists should use words that are familiar to patients instead of technical terms. We consider that focusing on popular topics can be a successful strategy that follows a similar approach.…”

“…A study [4] on the quality of YouTube videos about psoriasis classified 63% of videos as misleading or dangerous. Many other studies [5][6][7][8] have noted a vast amount of inaccurate or low-quality dermatological information on different social media platforms. This problem primarily affects vulnerable people, such as adolescents and young adults, who are the most active users of these platforms [2,9,10].…”

“…A study [ 4 ] on the quality of YouTube videos about psoriasis classified 63% of videos as misleading or dangerous. Many other studies [ 5 – 8 ] have noted a vast amount of inaccurate or low-quality dermatological information on different social media platforms.…”

“…This problem primarily affects vulnerable people, such as adolescents and young adults, who are the most active users of these platforms [ 2 , 9 , 10 ]. It has been suggested that in order to address this issue, dermatologists should develop an online presence [ 5 , 11 – 13 ]. However, dermatologists’ participation in social media is a new phenomenon, and the extant literature offers little insight into how dermatologists can develop a successful social media presence.…”