Hypertension: An Instagram Analysis

Damanpartap Singh,
Sana Kalam,
Harshitha A..,
Roopkanwar Kaur,
Hari Krishna Enapothula,*
Ishita Panchal

Abstract

Background: Hypertension (HTN) or high blood pressure exerts a significant public health burden on cardiovascular health status and healthcare systems in India. Internet sites are convenient, easy to access, available 24 hours a day, affordable, and informative to people, who now use it to search for information about medical conditions and treatment more frequently than they communicate with their physicians. Aims: The aim of the study is to review the posts and videos related to hypertension on Instagram and to check their authenticity. Methods and Material: It is a cross-sectional type of observational study conducted over a period of one month in August 2022 in which posts under different hashtags related to hypertension were analysed. Results: Out of 600 posts only 404 posts (67.3%) were related to Hypertension. Our study revealed that 311 posts (76.98%) regarding Hypertension on Instagram are true and 242 posts (59.9%) were posted by the healthcare and welfare Industry. Conclusions: According to our research, 30% of Instagram posts are unrelated to the category they are under. People will become aware that not everything they see on Instagram is true or pertinent to the issue by recognising such posts and statistics regarding the misinformation that is present there.