S1247 Progress in Drug Therapy for Hepatorenal Syndrome: A Systematic Review of Clinical Studies in the Last 3 Years

Abstract

In December 2021, we searched for publicly available posts using the terms "hepatitis b" and "hep b". We removed duplicates from the top 55 posts for each term and coded N5103 posts using a validated misinformation codebook with 72 variables including: engagement (e.g., number of likes), user characteristics (e.g., # of followers, # following), profitability (e.g., for profit, selling product or service), and claims with misinformation (determined by medical experts). We applied two-tailed z-tests, chi-square tests, and linear regressions to examine associations between profitability and misinformation (outcome). Results: Nearly a quarter of posts (n524, 23%) contained misinformation about hepatitis B and/or hepatitis B treatment. Misinformation posts had more engagement on average (1,599 likes vs. 970 likes, p, 0.01), were following more accounts (1,127 vs. 889, p5, 0.01), but had fewer followers (mean: 22,920n vs. 70,442, p, 0.001) than accurate posts. Nearly one-third of posts about hepatitis B referenced a conspiracy theory (30%), were for-profit (29%), and were selling a product or service (34%) through Instagram. Significantly more misinformation posts were for profit (47% vs. 14%, p, 0.01) and were selling a product or service (43% vs. 13% p, 0.01) compared to accurate posts. For-profit accounts (b5713, 95% CI 25-1401, p50.04) and those selling a product or service (b5843, 95% CI 196-1490, p50.01) were following significantly more accounts than their counterparts. Conclusion: Online health misinformation poses direct threat to patients and has broader reach and engagement than accurate information. Hepatitis B misinformation may exacerbate health disparities, given that financial incentives are difficult to distinguish, however our findings suggest that a high number of "following" accounts may be a marker for accounts seeking profitability off of Hepatitis B misinformation on Instagram. More research is needed to understand how exposure to health information can influence patient/caregiver behavior and downstream clinical and financial outcomes.