Is Social Media Spreading Misinformation on Exercise and Health in Brazil?

Instagram (IG) reaches millions of people, sharing personal content and all kinds of information, including those related to exercise and health. However, the scientific quality of the posted information is questionable. Thus, this study aimed to analyze whether exercise and health information poste...

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Autores principales:	Moacir Marocolo, Anderson Meireles, Hiago Leandro Rodrigues de Souza, Gustavo Ribeiro Mota, Dustin Jay Oranchuk, Rhaí André Arriel, Laura Hora Rios Leite
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	fitspiration fitness Instagram nutrition public health Medicine R
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/b4bda3809822482985e41a62898e33cd
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:b4bda3809822482985e41a62898e33cd2021-11-25T17:49:27ZIs Social Media Spreading Misinformation on Exercise and Health in Brazil?10.3390/ijerph1822119141660-46011661-7827https://doaj.org/article/b4bda3809822482985e41a62898e33cd2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/11914https://doaj.org/toc/1661-7827https://doaj.org/toc/1660-4601Instagram (IG) reaches millions of people, sharing personal content and all kinds of information, including those related to exercise and health. However, the scientific quality of the posted information is questionable. Thus, this study aimed to analyze whether exercise and health information posted by popular Brazilian IG influencers has technical-scientific accuracy. A personal IG account was created to identify Brazilian IG profiles. The inclusion criteria of the accounts were: (1) having 50% of all the shared posts related to topics about exercise and health, such as nutrition, health and wellness, medicine, or physical fitness; and (2) having over 100,000 followers. Qualitative analysis revealed a low quality percentage (38.79 ± 25.43%) for all analyzed posts. Out of all the posts, only 13 (~2.7%) cited a reference endorsing the information. Moreover, the higher quality-ratio score of the posts was not directly associated with the higher educational qualification of the influencers (r = 0.313; <i>p</i> = 0.076). Nevertheless, the number of followers was inversely correlated with the educational qualification of the influencers (r = −0.450; <i>p</i> = 0.009), but not with the quality-ratio score of the posts (r = −0.178 <i>p</i> = 0.322). We conclude that prominent Brazilian IG influencers disseminate low-quality information about exercise and health, contributing to the wide-spreading of misinformation to millions of followers.Moacir MarocoloAnderson MeirelesHiago Leandro Rodrigues de SouzaGustavo Ribeiro MotaDustin Jay OranchukRhaí André ArrielLaura Hora Rios LeiteMDPI AGarticlefitspirationfitnessInstagramnutritionpublic healthMedicineRENInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol 18, Iss 11914, p 11914 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	fitspiration fitness Instagram nutrition public health Medicine R
spellingShingle	fitspiration fitness Instagram nutrition public health Medicine R Moacir Marocolo Anderson Meireles Hiago Leandro Rodrigues de Souza Gustavo Ribeiro Mota Dustin Jay Oranchuk Rhaí André Arriel Laura Hora Rios Leite Is Social Media Spreading Misinformation on Exercise and Health in Brazil?
description	Instagram (IG) reaches millions of people, sharing personal content and all kinds of information, including those related to exercise and health. However, the scientific quality of the posted information is questionable. Thus, this study aimed to analyze whether exercise and health information posted by popular Brazilian IG influencers has technical-scientific accuracy. A personal IG account was created to identify Brazilian IG profiles. The inclusion criteria of the accounts were: (1) having 50% of all the shared posts related to topics about exercise and health, such as nutrition, health and wellness, medicine, or physical fitness; and (2) having over 100,000 followers. Qualitative analysis revealed a low quality percentage (38.79 ± 25.43%) for all analyzed posts. Out of all the posts, only 13 (~2.7%) cited a reference endorsing the information. Moreover, the higher quality-ratio score of the posts was not directly associated with the higher educational qualification of the influencers (r = 0.313; <i>p</i> = 0.076). Nevertheless, the number of followers was inversely correlated with the educational qualification of the influencers (r = −0.450; <i>p</i> = 0.009), but not with the quality-ratio score of the posts (r = −0.178 <i>p</i> = 0.322). We conclude that prominent Brazilian IG influencers disseminate low-quality information about exercise and health, contributing to the wide-spreading of misinformation to millions of followers.
format	article
author	Moacir Marocolo Anderson Meireles Hiago Leandro Rodrigues de Souza Gustavo Ribeiro Mota Dustin Jay Oranchuk Rhaí André Arriel Laura Hora Rios Leite
author_facet	Moacir Marocolo Anderson Meireles Hiago Leandro Rodrigues de Souza Gustavo Ribeiro Mota Dustin Jay Oranchuk Rhaí André Arriel Laura Hora Rios Leite
author_sort	Moacir Marocolo
title	Is Social Media Spreading Misinformation on Exercise and Health in Brazil?
title_short	Is Social Media Spreading Misinformation on Exercise and Health in Brazil?
title_full	Is Social Media Spreading Misinformation on Exercise and Health in Brazil?
title_fullStr	Is Social Media Spreading Misinformation on Exercise and Health in Brazil?
title_full_unstemmed	Is Social Media Spreading Misinformation on Exercise and Health in Brazil?
title_sort	is social media spreading misinformation on exercise and health in brazil?
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/b4bda3809822482985e41a62898e33cd
work_keys_str_mv	AT moacirmarocolo issocialmediaspreadingmisinformationonexerciseandhealthinbrazil AT andersonmeireles issocialmediaspreadingmisinformationonexerciseandhealthinbrazil AT hiagoleandrorodriguesdesouza issocialmediaspreadingmisinformationonexerciseandhealthinbrazil AT gustavoribeiromota issocialmediaspreadingmisinformationonexerciseandhealthinbrazil AT dustinjayoranchuk issocialmediaspreadingmisinformationonexerciseandhealthinbrazil AT rhaiandrearriel issocialmediaspreadingmisinformationonexerciseandhealthinbrazil AT laurahorariosleite issocialmediaspreadingmisinformationonexerciseandhealthinbrazil
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Is Social Media Spreading Misinformation on Exercise and Health in Brazil?

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