Medical misinformation can have a profound impact on perioperative patient safety. With users numbering in the billions, platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, Messenger, and YouTube command an ever-increasing share of the public’s time, attention, and dependence. Consequently, they have also become primary sources of information for politics, sports, general knowledge, and news for the general public. Statistics published by Pew Research in 2022 show that adults under the age of 30 actually trust information from social media almost as much as national news outlets, and in 2023, half of US adults get news at least some of the time from social media.
The relationship between medical care and information on the internet has been fraught since the early days of the internet, predating the more recent increase of medical misinformation. According to the United States Office of the Surgeon General, medical misinformation is “information that is false, inaccurate, or misleading according to the best available evidence at the time.” The term “cyberchondria” was first coined more than two decades ago to describe heightened distress or anxiety caused by review of medical information on the internet. One framework to explain the etiology of this distress suggests that patients with pre-existing anxiety seek out additional information on the internet for reassurance. Given the possibly unreliable nature of this information, alarm and surprise may follow, causing some patients or family members to find reassurance, whereas others do not. Those that fail to find reassurance seek out even more online health research, which often produces more anxiety and a self-perpetuating cycle takes hold.
Misinformation can affect understanding of public health concerns, as was seen in the recent COVID pandemic when concerns were expressed regarding social distancing, mask mandates, and vaccination. Perioperative medicine is no less affected. Patients presenting for labor pain may hesitate to consent for an epidural for analgesia if they consumed medical misinformation regarding potential side effects or complications. In 2022, a scoping review to assess the most common patient-reported barriers regarding epidural use in labor found that patients feared maternal side effects, fetal complications, prolonged labor, and paralysis, among other concerns. (author introduction)