Lee Victor H K, Kyoon-Achan Grace, Levesque Josh, Ghotra Suhird, Hu Ralph, Schroth Robert J
Department of Preventive Dental Science, Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
Front Oral Health. 2023 Jan 5;3:1062421. doi: 10.3389/froh.2022.1062421. eCollection 2022.
Early childhood caries (ECC) is prevalent worldwide. Oral health promotion effectively utilizes key messages to educate parents/caregivers and the public on how to prevent ECC. Instagram is one of the biggest social media platforms, and could be used to promote early childhood oral health. The purpose of this study was to determine if and how young children's oral health is promoted and supported on Instagram.
This study used inductive content analysis to categorize, quantify, and interpret pictorial and textual data derived from Instagram posts containing the most commonly used ECC-related hashtags in their captions (determined by an extensive search through Instagram's search bar).
A total of 1,071 images and 3,228 comments were analyzed based on 13 hashtags. The most common types of images were those of people (57.5%) and graphics/memes (37.8%). Most people were older children (32.5%) or adults (20.3%), and were White (19.6%) or Asian (18.5%). A majority of images had people posing (79.1%) in dental clinics (81.3%). Most graphics/memes were instructional/informational (76.3%). A total of 173 posts had substantial discussions that were positive/constructive in nature. The majority of discussions had at least one comment providing advice, tips, or explanations (79.8%), or had users requesting further information (73.4%).
As more people engage with social media, health professionals should consider the potential for Instagram as a tool to promote early childhood oral health and to prevent ECC. Our study shows that many different users are providing and consuming content related to ECC. Targeted messaging, monitoring of content, and professional guidance could be beneficial to those seeking oral health information on this platform.
幼儿龋齿（ECC）在全球范围内普遍存在。口腔健康促进有效地利用关键信息来教育家长/照顾者及公众如何预防幼儿龋齿。照片墙（Instagram）是最大的社交媒体平台之一，可用于促进幼儿口腔健康。本研究的目的是确定在照片墙上是否以及如何促进和支持幼儿口腔健康。
本研究采用归纳性内容分析法对从照片墙帖子中获取的图片和文本数据进行分类、量化和解读，这些帖子在其说明中包含最常用的与幼儿龋齿相关的主题标签（通过在照片墙搜索栏中广泛搜索确定）。
基于13个主题标签，共分析了1071张图片和3228条评论。最常见的图片类型是人物图片（57.5%）和图形/表情包（37.8%）。大多数人物是年龄较大的儿童（32.5%）或成年人（20.3%），且为白人（19.6%）或亚洲人（18.5%）。大多数图片中有人物在牙科诊所摆姿势（81.3%）（79.1%）。大多数图形/表情包具有指导/信息性质（76.3%）。共有173个帖子有实质性的积极/建设性讨论。大多数讨论至少有一条评论提供建议、提示或解释（79.8%），或者有用户请求进一步信息（73.4%）。
随着越来越多的人使用社交媒体，健康专业人员应考虑将照片墙作为促进幼儿口腔健康和预防幼儿龋齿的工具的潜力。我们的研究表明，许多不同的用户正在提供和消费与幼儿龋齿相关的内容。有针对性的信息传递、内容监测和专业指导可能对在该平台上寻求口腔健康信息的人有益。
