Is social media a promising global health center for the concussed? A scoping review of concussion coverage across social media.

Abstract

Background: There are many risk factors that heighten severity and susceptibility of concussion which have come into heightened awareness attributed to more revelations across the concussions landscape in recent years in light of news media, cinema, landmark legal cases, and continued research findings.

Methods: This review specifically focused on identifying concussion-related information accessed by different audiences on a range of social media platforms. The goals of this review were to synthesize the existing state of concussion coverage across social media platforms from all published studies to date as the basis to inform directions for patient and family education, clinical practice and future research on improving concussion care and treatment.

Results: Findings revealed a wide range of consumer and professional sources publishing content on concussions. News stories and testimonials were the most widely accessed formats across two studies. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and Flickr were the social media platforms examined across these studies. Post-concussive symptoms and concussion treatment approaches were widely covered across two studies followed by prevention in three studies. Focus on situational and contextual factors of concussions (e.g. setting, surface and trauma-related considerations) were missing from findings in the studies across this review.

Conclusion: Clinical and educational implications and recommendations for future ways to harness the potential of social media in improving concussion care and treatment are also presented. Increased content on concussion prevention could yield value in addressing modifiable risk factors for concussion as the basis to reduce the rates of this longstanding public health complexity.