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Social media use in healthcare: A systematic review of effects on patients and on their relationship with healthcare professionals
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Since the emergence of social media in 2004, a growing percentage of patients use this technology for health related reasons. To reflect on the alleged beneficial and potentially harmful effects of social media use by patients, the aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the extant literature on the effects of social media use for health related reasons on patients and their relationship with healthcare professionals. METHODS: We conducted a systematic literature review on empirical research regarding the effects of social media use by patients for health related reasons. The papers we included met the following selection criteria: (1) published in a peer-reviewed journal, (2) written in English, (3) full text available to the researcher, (4) contain primary empirical data, (5) the users of social media are patients, (6) the effects of patients using social media are clearly stated, (7) satisfy established quality criteria. RESULTS: Initially, a total of 1,743 articles were identified from which 22 were included in the study. From these articles six categories of patients' use of social media were identified, namely: emotional, information, esteem, network support, social comparison and emotional expression. The types of use were found to lead to seven identified types of effects on patients, namely improved self-management and control, enhanced psychological well-being, and enhanced subjective well-being, diminished subjective well-being, addiction to social media, loss of privacy, and being targeted for promotion. Social media use by patients was found to affect the healthcare professional and patient relationship, by leading to more equal communication between the patient and healthcare professional, increased switching of doctors, harmonious relationships, and suboptimal interaction between the patient and healthcare professional. CONCLUSIONS: Our review provides insights into the emerging utilization of social media in healthcare. In particular, it identifies types of use by patients as well as the effects of such use, which may differ between patients and doctors. Accordingly, our results framework and propositions can serve to guide future research, and they also have practical implications for healthcare providers and policy makers.
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“Health promotion on social media also encouraged patients to seek medical attention more willingly [11].”
From Social Media Use Among Parents and Caregivers of Children With Rare Genetic Diseases: Scoping Review (2025) · cites this paper as [11]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Most patients discuss information they have found online with their health care provider”
From Social Media Use Among Parents and Caregivers of Children With Rare Genetic Diseases: Scoping Review (2025) · cites this paper as [11]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“however, physicians often react negatively to discussions involving information sourced from social media [11-13].”
From Social Media Use Among Parents and Caregivers of Children With Rare Genetic Diseases: Scoping Review (2025) · cites this paper as [11]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Prior literature has highlighted both benefits and risks of social media in healthcare,4–13 but there remains limited understanding of how generational perspectives shape views of professionalism in healthcare social media use.”
From Evaluating perceptions of social media professionalism by healthcare workers (2026) · cites this paper as [5]
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In the citing paper
“Social media use is also related to shorter relationships with health care providers, as online discussions prompted patients to seek specific providers [11].”
From Social Media Use Among Parents and Caregivers of Children With Rare Genetic Diseases: Scoping Review (2025) · cites this paper as [11]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“social media empowers patients to be more informed and involved in their own care”
From Social Media Use Among Parents and Caregivers of Children With Rare Genetic Diseases: Scoping Review (2025) · cites this paper as [11]
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“allowing for improved communication with medical professionals [11,12].”
From Social Media Use Among Parents and Caregivers of Children With Rare Genetic Diseases: Scoping Review (2025) · cites this paper as [11]
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In the citing paper
“popularity of SM has also been embraced by health care professionals (HCPs) [5].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [5]
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“[14] has found that social media has changed the relationship between doctors and”
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“…can be easily propagated, which can be detrimental for patients, have a potentially negative effect on patient-healthcare professional relationships and lead to feelings of anxiety and worry for patients who may access distressing information (De Martino et al., 2017; Smailhodzic et al., 2016).”
Backgroundİnternet ve Sosyal Medya Kullanımı Gebe Kadınları Nasıl Etkiler?
Değirmenciler, B., Serçekuş, P., & Özkan, S. (2021) · Ordu Üniversitesi Hemşirelik Çalışmaları Dergisi · doi:10.38108/ouhcd.923961 · Cited by 18
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“The current state of research regarding the adoption of social media in healthcare seems to lack insights from the perspectives of potential users, their perceptions, and behaviours (Smailhodzic et al., 2016).”
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BackgroundImproving Health and Efficiency With Strategic Social Media Use in Health Organizations
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“Health professionals must be very careful regarding interaction on social networks such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or WhatsApp, where the mere sending of a request for interaction between doctor and patient can be misinterpreted and put the relationship at risk [53].”
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Katsas, I., Apostolakis, I., & Varlamis, I. (2021) · Informatics for Health and Social Care · doi:10.1080/17538157.2021.1906256 · Cited by 3
Online Reputation Management in Canadian Hospitals
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“First, by utilising the power of traditional or social media,[41]”
MethodNewspaper coverage of advance care planning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Content analysis
van der Smissen, D., van Leeuwen, M., Sudore, R. L., Koffman, J., Heyland, D. K., van der Heide, A., Rietjens, J. A. C., & Korfage, I. J. (2023) · Death Studies · doi:10.1080/07481187.2023.2180693 · Cited by 5
“Future research could explore the coverage of ACP in social media, an increasingly important source of information used by the public (Smailhodzic et al., 2016), to gain additional insight into the public discourse on ACP.”
Role of Social Media in Healthcare Domain: An Integrated Review
.M.Sridevi, M. J., & ArunKumar, B. R. (2017) · International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications · doi:10.9790/9622-0706014954 · Cited by 3
Communication between Parents and Autistic Children to Gain Social Support
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“Research by Smailhodzic et al. (2016) stated that the relationship between professionals and members of a group in social media is equal.”
BackgroundGrant, C., Gephart, S. M., & Rattray, N. (2024) · Nursing for Women's Health · doi:10.1016/j.nwh.2024.02.006 · Cited by 2
Social support and audience engagement of lupus-related posts on social networking sites in China
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“…knowledge and experiences of thousands of medical professionals to disseminate all sorts of lupus-related information that can help patients enrich their understanding of disease and build awareness of their health conditions, and also contribute to balancing the doctor-patient relationship [10].”
BackgroundTwitter-Sentiment Analysis of Moroccan Diabetic: A Comparison Study
Roudani, M., Karim, E. M., Elkari, B., Hammouni, A., Chellak, S., Baïzri, H., & Cheggour, M. (2024) · Lecture notes in networks and systems · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-74491-4_68 · Cited by 2
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“This approach might also limit the potential for negative patient-HCP interactions driven by the acquisition of suboptimal information from non-HCPs on the web [36].”
ACL injury prevention content on TikTok : Untapped outreach potential for youth athletes
Haider, A. A., Bhat, S., Jalal, H., & Kuhn, A. W. (2025) · Knee Surgery Sports Traumatology Arthroscopy · doi:10.1002/ksa.70128 · Cited by 2
Smailhodžić, E., Boonstra, A., Langley, D., & Fabian, N. E. (2026) · European Journal of Information Systems · doi:10.1080/0960085x.2026.2616039 · Cited by 2
“This shift has encouraged more participatory health practices, where patients play an active role in seeking and sharing information (Eysenbach, 2008; Smailhodzic et al., 2016).”
Self-citationCimiano, P., Brazda, N., Härtung, M., Starke-Knäusel, C., Schmidt, A. L., Vuono, M. C. D., Tyagi, A. S., Gottowik, J., Rodriguez‐Esteban, R., Collins, B., et al. (2026) · Frontiers in Medicine · doi:10.3389/fmed.2025.1703923 · Cited by 2
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Hippocrates’ Dream. What has Hippocratic Revolution Left in Modern Medicine
Gullace, G. (2019) · Journal of Cardiology & Cardiovascular Therapy · doi:10.19080/jocct.2019.13.555857 · Cited by 2
“The former may have beneficial and potentially harmful effects, which can affect the healthcare professional and patient relationship [66].”
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“Therefore, the approach of providing resources and citations is the transparency that many patients expect from their providers, which is a reputable way to build partnership with the online community [17,18].”
BackgroundOnline reputation management in Spanish cancer patients’ associations: a proposal model
Aguerrebere, P. M., Pacanowski, T. G., & Medina, E. (2022) · Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación · doi:10.14198/medcom.22240 · Cited by 2
#OrthoTwitter: Blending Information, Education, and Entertainment Online
Chellamuthu, G., Muthu, S., & Siddamanickam, S. (2022) · Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery · doi:10.2106/jbjs.21.01370 · Cited by 2
“Orthopaedic surgeons tend to have higher patient-satisfaction scores when they have a digital presence 18,19 , as it can enhance the patient-physician relationship 20 .”
BackgroundRole of Social Media in Health Professions Education
Brazil, V. A., Stokes-Parish, J. B., & Spurr, J. (2023) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-981-15-3344-0_119 · Cited by 2
Fogel, J., & Ewen, A. (2023) · Delaware Journal of Public Health · doi:10.32481/djph.2023.06.023 · Cited by 2
Hamid, A. A., Tudor, C., & Assi, S. A. (2023) · Emerging Trends in Drugs Addictions and Health · doi:10.1016/j.etdah.2023.100139 · Cited by 2
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Evaluation of YouTube Videos as a Source of Information about Dementia Care
Ataoğlu, E. E., & Çağlayan, H. Z. B. (2024) · Düzce Tıp Fakültesi Dergisi · doi:10.18678/dtfd.1496019 · Cited by 2
The impact of social media and online communities of practice in rheumatology
Seraphine, J. L., & Wells, A. F. (2024) · Exploration of Musculoskeletal Diseases · doi:10.37349/emd.2024.00072 · Cited by 2
Xiang, J., & Fu, S. (2024) · Library Hi Tech · doi:10.1108/lht-03-2024-0135 · Cited by 2
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Social media provides support and education for pregnant people when healthcare does not
Faro, E. Z., Santillan, D. A., Funk, M. L., Boeldt, K., & Santillan, M. K. O. (2024) · Frontiers in Global Women s Health · doi:10.3389/fgwh.2024.1410831 · Cited by 2
Combating online misinformation in clinical encounters
Loeb, S., Camacho, M. R., Nolasco, T. S., Byrne, N. K., Rivera, A., Barlow, L. J., Chan, J. M., Gomez, S. L., & Langford, A. T. (2025) · British Journal of Urology · doi:10.1111/bju.16734 · Cited by 2
“A systematic review on social media use in healthcare reported that it can help to provide more bilateral communication and harmonious relationships between doctors and patients but conversely can drive suboptimal interactions [1].”
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“The traditional physician code “Not harm” collides with a landscape where norms are evolving, platforms are profit-driven, and digital interactions often remain ambiguous [18–20].”
The role of social media in patient decision-making in choosing dental bleaching treatments
Atabaki, A., & Duijster, D. (2025) · Community Dental Health · doi:10.1177/0265539x251361703 · Cited by 2
“This suggests that passive exposure may contribute to a gradual internalization of aesthetic ideals, which can shape attitudes and potentially in fl uence decisions for undergoing cosmetic procedures, such as dental bleaching (Smailhodzic et al., 2016).”
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Digital Patient Engagement and Social Media
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Using Social Media for Effective Health Care Service Delivery: Bibliometrics and Sociometry
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A comprehensive analysis of #Enuresis conversation on Twitter
Yu, J., Balasubramanian, A., Gerber, J. A., & Seth, A. (2020) · Canadian Urological Association Journal · doi:10.5489/cuaj.6260 · Cited by 2
“Smailhodzic et al. found that social media encouraged equal communication between the patient and physician and increased the rapport of patient-physician relationships [20].”
BackgroundHealthcare Ethics and Professionalism in Social Media
Wolfe, S. M., Hu, S., Rundle, C. W., Weintraub, G. S., & Dellavalle, R. P. (2021) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-56861-0_20 · Cited by 2
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“Hosp Top 2018; 96: 9–17 [30] Smailhodzic E, Hooijsma W, Boonstra A et al.”
BackgroundComber, S., Wilson, L., Kelly, S., & McCay‐Peet, L. (2021) · Leadership in health services · doi:10.1108/lhs-06-2020-0040 · Cited by 3
Karâa, W. B. A., Alkhammash, E. H., Slimani, T., & Hadjouni, M. (2021) · Journal of Healthcare Engineering · doi:10.1155/2021/3400943 · Cited by 2
“…can provide help to healthcare, since ev-erybody with access to social media can post information about how to deal with certain health problems [26, 27]. use of data of Twitter, Instagram, and so forth has been exploited to investigate, track, and predict a range of health incidences and…”
BackgroundRetracted
Metadata
- Authors
- Smailhodzic, E., Hooijsma, W., Boonstra, A., & Langley, D. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Groningen (NL)
- Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (NL)
- Venue
- BMC Health Services Research
- Published
- 2016-08-26
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 442-442
- ISSN
- 1472-6963 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5000484
- OpenAlex
- W2512433998
- Cited by
- 827
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 75 · 2025: 107 · 2024: 107 · 2023: 99 · 2022: 111 · 2021: 127 · 2020: 96 · 2019: 61 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 14
- FWCI
- 6.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- BMC Health Services Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (acceptedVersion)
- TNO Repository (submittedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Repository hosted by TU Delft Library (TU Delft) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Keywords
- social media use, patient self-management, psychological well-being, subjective well-being, social media addiction, privacy loss, social comparison, network support, patient-physician communication
- MeSH terms
- Female, Health Personnel, Humans, Male, Professional-Patient Relations, Self Care, Consumer Health Information, Social Media
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
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