Social media have become an important source of health-related information, especially for
young people. Everyone can create and share health-related content on social media and some
individual users attract large numbers of young followers. Such users are also called
influencers because their content has high outreach and can influence the attitudes and
behavior of the recipients.
The research team is particularly interested in so-called health influencers, influential social
media users who post content on health-related topics. These influencers can have a health-
promoting effect, for example, when they share evidence-based information and inspire young
people for healthy lifestyles. However, they can also have adverse effects on public health when
serving commercial interests or sharing misinformation.
The project team investigates three key questions in this context: (1) Who are the most
prominent health influencers young people engage with? (2) Which health topics are they
covering? (3) How does following these health influencers affect adolescents health attitudes
and behavior?
To identify health influencers, the researchers will initiate a citizen science process with young
people. In citizen science, lay citizens perform the roles of professional researchers and engage
in different steps of the research process. In this study, school students all over Austria will be
invited to engage in a crowdsourcing process. In this process, they screen their digital
environments and create a unique database of health influencers, which provides a rich resource
for future research.
To analyze the content of the identified health influencers, the researchers will conduct a
content analysis of their social media accounts and posts. In this content analysis, the health
influencers will be characterized on the profile level (e.g., gender, outreach, expertise) and the
post level (e.g., topics of the posts, level of evidence, frames).
Finally, the research team will implement a longitudinal survey with adolescents to understand
the impact of following health influencers on social media. The participants will report which
health influencers they are following. The research team will observe how young people who
follow certain types of health influencers change their attitudes, knowledge, and behavior over
time.
Taken together, the project results will provide a holistic perspective on the role of health
influencers in young peoples information diets. The researchers will identify key health
influencers, open the black box of the content they post and provide first evidence on the impact
of following these influencers across time. Based on the results, the research team will derive
guidelines to tackle health misinformation and leverage health influencers positive potential in
high-choice and personalized media environments.