Dermatology on pinterest

Abstract

Background: Pinterest is a social media internet service utilized by individuals, organizations, and businesses to collect and share ideas related to projects or interests. Objective: The literature related to dermatology-related content on Pinterest is scarce. This study aims to investigate the presence of dermatology related content available on Pinterest. Methods: Investigators searched five terms related to dermatology in the "pins" and "boards" search categories of pinterest. The first 20 results were evaluated for content and assigned to a content group of "advocacy," "informative," or "home remedies." Boards were also categorized as being posted by an MD or professional society versus others. The top ten dermatology journals were also searched for under the boards category. Results: Informative pins were the most common (49%) followed by advocacy (37%) and home remedies (14%). Informative boards were the most common (53%) followed by home remedies (31%) and advocacy (16%).We identified that only 24% of boards were created by either M.D.s or advocacy organizations. The top ten dermatology journals identified by prior studies had little presence, with only one board posted by JAMA Dermatology. Conclusions: Our study contributes to a growing body of data that dermatology organizations are relatively absent from new social media sites, and Pinterest represents a potential outlet for targeted intervention in high-risk groups for skin disease.