Orthodontics, Medicine and Life Science School, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.
Department of Orthodontics, Juiz de Fora Federal University, Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
PLoS One. 2023 Sep 29;18(9):e0286927. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0286927. eCollection 2023.
Worldwide, social media is gaining popularity year after year. In Brazil, by 2027, there will be more than 188 million users of social media sites, against 165 million in 2022, therefore, the usage of general population and health care professionals, including orthodontists, is increasing. Differently from scientific journals that undergo a rigorous peer review process prior to publication, the same level of demand is not found on social media. Hence, this study aimed to assess whether orthodontists can recognize scientifically based and non-science-based posts and if their perceptions are different from general opinion (laypeople), dentistry students, and dentists (non-orthodontists). The posts were created using the search tool on Instagram with the hashtags #clearaligners #acceledent #selfligatingbraces and #propelorthodontics, four scientific based posts and four without or with low scientific evidence were selected and evaluated through a virtual questionnaire in the QUALTRICS platform by 385 people, (175 laypeople, 102 dentists, 58 dentistry students, and 50 orthodontists) using a visual analogue scale (VAS). In addition, four questions were asked. ANOVA (Adjusted Bonferroni correction) and Pearson's chi-squared, and Student T tests were applied to identify statistical differences. Significant difference was found only for posts with no scientific evidence between orthodontist's group when comparing with laypeople (p < 0.001) for the #selfligatingbraces, and the #propelorthodontics for the group orthodontists when compared with laypeople (p = 0.031) and dentists (p = 0.033). Instagram was the favorite social media where most of the participants spend more than 3 h. Of the participants, 97% used social media to keep informed and read the news. Almost half of the respondents search for orthodontics services on social media. Orthodontists were able to perceive differences in only two posts from the general perception (laypeople) regarding non- or low-scientific-evidence posts.
全球范围内，社交媒体逐年普及。到 2027 年，巴西的社交媒体用户将超过 1.88 亿，高于 2022 年的 1.65 亿，因此，包括正畸医生在内的普通民众和医疗保健专业人员的使用率正在上升。与在发表前经过严格同行评审过程的科学期刊不同，社交媒体上并没有同样的需求水平。因此，本研究旨在评估正畸医生是否能够识别基于科学和非基于科学的帖子，以及他们的看法是否与一般意见（非专业人士）、牙科学学生和非正畸医生不同。使用 Instagram 的搜索工具创建了带有#clearaligners #acceledent #selfligatingbraces 和#propelorthodontics 标签的帖子，选择了四个基于科学的帖子和四个没有或低科学证据的帖子，并通过 QUALTRICS 平台上的虚拟问卷由 385 人（175 名非专业人士、102 名牙医、58 名牙科学学生和 50 名正畸医生）进行评估，使用视觉模拟量表（VAS）。此外，还提出了四个问题。应用方差分析（调整后的 Bonferroni 校正）和 Pearson's chi-squared 以及 Student T 检验来识别统计学差异。仅在没有科学证据的帖子中发现了统计学差异，正畸医生组与非专业人士组相比（p < 0.001），#selfligatingbraces 和#propelorthodontics 组与非专业人士组（p = 0.031）和牙医组（p = 0.033）相比。Instagram 是最受参与者欢迎的社交媒体，他们在此类媒体上花费的时间超过 3 小时。在参与者中，97%的人使用社交媒体来获取信息和阅读新闻。几乎一半的受访者在社交媒体上搜索正畸服务。正畸医生仅能察觉到两个帖子与普通大众（非专业人士）的看法不同，即非科学或低科学证据的帖子。
