Bariatric surgery on social media: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction
Bariatric Surgery (BS) represents a viable option for the treatment of obesity and its risks. Nevertheless, it is still being underused by the eligible patient population because of the general lack of information, false beliefs, and the stigmatization of obesity. Social media seems to be a solution for overcoming this problem.

Materials and methods
The search terms “Bariatric surgery”, “Metabolic surgery”, “Obesity surgery” and “Weight loss surgery” were employed to analyze the Twitter accounts and Facebook pages dedicated to Bariatric Surgery. The most relevant metadata from each account was collected and analyzed with descriptive statistics.

Results
293 Facebook pages and 122 Twitter accounts were analyzed, being most of them created in the US (42%). No significant differences were found between the mean of followers of both platforms. Medical centers were the biggest creator category with 69.24% of the total number of followers. Although the promotion of medical services accounted for 68.65% of the total number of followers, the promotion of medical products had a significant higher mean of followers. (p = 0.002).

Conclusion
Doctors and businesses acknowledge the importance of social media for informing patients about BS and promoting their services. Accounts with commercial purposes presented the highest number of followers. The high number of supporters this commercial content has, along with the relative lack of followers in educational and support groups, could lead to undeliberate decisions in detriment of the patients and their well-being.