For Accurate Health Advice, Don't Rely on Facebook

(Nov. 3) -- Do you need to reconsider your insulin dose? Is that mole malignant or just uniquely shaped? For answers to these and all other important health questions, online users would be wise to steer clear of social networks.

An evaluation of 15 major Facebook communities for diabetes patients, by researchers at Harvard and Brigham and Women's Hospital, concluded that social networks are "the Wild West" for health information.

"Social media is an evolving forum that clearly is attractive to people looking to share information and to find support and strategies for living with chronic disease," Dr. Troyen Brennan, chief medical officer at CVS, which sponsored the study, said in a press release.

Indeed, 66 percent of the 690 wall posts analyzed were devoted to users sharing their own personal experiences with diabetes.

But Brennan notes the urgent "need for fact-checking" when it comes to info and advice: Around 27 percent of wall posts were pushing drugs, especially "natural" remedies that haven't been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

A significant number of posts also discussed personal information that likely wouldn't pass muster with a doctor, like how to manage carbohydrate intake in settings where one is consuming alcohol.

That said, diabetics do find some solace in their Facebook communities. Nearly one-third of the wall posts offered support and encouragement for other community members, leading the research team to note that there are "meaningful benefits that patients may experience when participating in these sites."

And most of the health information being passed around wasn't dangerous, nor did personal anecdotes suggest hazardous diabetes management strategies.

In other words, patients, network at your own risk.

"Patients and doctors need to know it is really the Wild West out there," said Dr. William Shrank, who led the study.

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