Public health experts want to slide into your TikTok feed — with the facts

Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's weekly health newsletter, CommonHealth. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.

A pair of Massachusetts researchers is testing a way to counter the bad health advice that’s rampant online with an unlikely ally: TikTok influencers.

While social media creators are often criticized for promoting health misinformation, the duo at Boston University’s School of Public Health believes influencers can be effective messengers for evidence-based public health campaigns.

The hope is to shape online conversations about health before they spiral into misinformation.

Prior studies have suggested that misinformation spreads faster and farther than the truth on social media. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health experts have worried that the problem of misleading, or even dangerous, health information has only intensified.

“There's virality. There's sensationalism. There's emotion-based messages that simply reach people's feeds much faster than public health guidance,” said Monica Wang, who studies public health and health communication at BU and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in an interview with WBUR’s All Things Considered.

When asked who is at risk of encountering bad health information online, Wang said "most people are at risk" — because most people are online. A poll conducted in August by KFF, a nonprofit health policy research group, found that one in six adults who use social media reported regularly getting health information from influencers.

To fight the flood of misinformation, Wang and her BU colleague, Matthew Motta, launched a pilot project called, “Influencing the Influencers.” The idea was simple: bring content creators into the public health conversation rather than shutting them out.

“ Public health needs to evolve how we communicate and rethink who delivers the message,” Wang said. "Instead of fighting with the platforms, we thought, ‘Why not partner with trusted messengers who are already engaging with audiences?’ ”

They modeled the study after a previous effort by Motta and other researchers at the Harvard Chan School. That study involved collaborating with 100 TikTok influencers on topics related to mental health. The research aimed to bridge the gap between academia and influencers, and arm the influencers with information often hidden behind paywalls or tucked away in conferences.

Wang and Motta’s pilot took a similar approach, but focused on weight supplements.

They tapped a small group of seven health influencers and gave them toolkits with evidence-based information about the supplements. Then, they monitored whether their content changed and how accurate it was. (The influencers still had full creative freedom, and didn't have to include the information included in the toolkit.)

So far, the preliminary results look promising.

After taking part in Motta and Wang’s training, the researchers’ early data suggests that 90% of the study participants included the fact that weight loss supplements aren’t approved by the FDA in their videos, compared with none before the training. The researchers also noted an increase in mentions that the supplements may pose health risks such as liver damage.

For example, one of the participants was Rachel Havekost, an author and part-time barista known for regularly posting health-related content, from tips for those struggling with depression to more light-hearted dance videos. (She also participated in the prior study with Harvard.) After Wang and Motta shared the toolkit, Havekost created a video about apple cider vinegar pills and the difference between weight loss drugs and supplements. It explained how supplements don’t have to be approved by the FDA, and their manufacturers don’t have to prove they are safe and effective.

Wang and Motta said many of the influencers they worked with hadn’t thought about facts like these and were surprised by the information. But after working directly with content creators, Motta said, “influencers are willing partners in the fight to combat misinformation, and I think that this point gets lost all the time.”

Wang added that influencers can be critical for reaching viewers traditional health campaigns often miss. She said public health institutions may not have earned people’s trust — partly because patients don’t always see their stories reflected in scientific research. And there’s evidence that groups such as racial minorities, women, disabled patients and those with chronic conditions often feel dismissed or receive worse care from their health care providers.

“In this void, it's not surprising that people turn to information online or influencers,” Wang said.

Looking ahead, the researchers hope to replicate the pilot on a larger scale, and explore other domains of health misinformation. They also hope to assess how followers respond to the posts, and whether their behavior changes. The potential applications for this research could range from food to vaccines and more, the researchers said, and it could lead to improvements in people’s health.

“If you can get it right,” Motta said, “you can influence a lot of people.”