Parkinson’s disease and social media

Abstract

Social media refer to Internet-based platforms on which user-generated content is shared. Social media services are ubiquitous around the world, and many individuals have integrated their use into their daily practices. Although adoption of social media by health care systems has been slow, health professionals, patients, and caregivers continue to be avid consumers of the different social media platforms. Parkinson’s disease, the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, provides an ideal case study for scrutinizing the adequacy and accuracy of health information on social media. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the literature on the interaction between social media tools/applications and medicine and examine the presence of Parkinson’s disease in two common social media platforms.