Social Media in the Management of Obesity and Diabetes: An Underutilised Population Educational Tool.

Abstract

Obesity and diabetes are two of the most common chronic medical conditions encountered, putting an ever-increasing strain on healthcare systems worldwide. Social media meanwhile has taken the world by storm over the last 2 decades, providing a way to distribute information instantly and on a vast scale at the click of a button. The use of social media to aid in the management of obesity and diabetes though is an underutilised tool, with the potential to help in educating and supporting these patients in numerous ways both now and in the future, on a grand scale. The caveat to this, however, is the negative side of social media, which can include the spread of disinformation and bullying. In this commentary, we discuss the methodology and wide scale of positive and negative effects of social media across the management of obesity and diabetes, as well as the possible methods we can use this to our advantage in the medical profession to help our patients going forward.