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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Asian J Neurosurg
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1806861
Original Article

Instagram and Traumatic Spine Injury: An Analysis of Social Media Altmetrics

Minaam Farooq
1   Department of Neurosurgery, King Edward Medical University, Mayo Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan
,
Amr Badary
2   Department of Neurosurgery, SRH Wald-Klinikum Gera, Academic Hospital of Jena University, Gera, Germany
,
Haleema Sadia
3   Department of Neurosurgery, Karachi Institute of Medical Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan
,
Muhammad Huzaifa Ahmed Khan
1   Department of Neurosurgery, King Edward Medical University, Mayo Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan
,
Sunaina Tariq
1   Department of Neurosurgery, King Edward Medical University, Mayo Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan
,
Anas Ahmed 
4   Department of Neurosurgery, Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan
,
Shah Gul Zahra 
1   Department of Neurosurgery, King Edward Medical University, Mayo Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan
,
Kaleem Ullah Ranjha 
1   Department of Neurosurgery, King Edward Medical University, Mayo Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan
› Author Affiliations Funding None.
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Abstract

Objective

With social media's increasing prevalence, platforms like Instagram have emerged as key sources of altmetrics. This study aimed to analyze the posts shared on Instagram referencing traumatic spine injury in terms of account type, languages, geographical distribution, content analysis, and audience engagement.

Materials and Methods

Public Instagram posts were isolated and evaluated using the hashtags “#spinetrauma,” “#spinefracture,” “#spinetraumasurgeries,” “#spinalcordinjuryrecovery,” “#spinetraumasurvivor,” and “#spinalcordinjury.” The authors analyzed the top 1,000 posts for the variables: account type, languages, geographical distribution, content analysis, and audience engagement. In total, 345 posts were included for analysis using SPSS (version 26).

Results

Of the 345 Instagram posts and reels (Ps and Rs) that met our eligibility requirements, 183 (53%) were written in English. Surgeons' and physicians' accounts contributed 210 Ps/Rs (60.8%), while patients' accounts amounted to 63 Ps/Rs (18.3%). Out of 263 Ps/Rs with a known country of origin, the United States had the highest number with 56 Ps/Rs (16.2%). Content analysis revealed 114 Ps/Rs (33%) focused on pathology and 118 Ps/Rs (34.2%) posted radiological images. Regarding audience engagement, the survivor stories had the highest mean likes and comments per post, 126.5 (p = 0.107) and 8.7 (p = 0.018), respectively. It was followed by pathology-related content (mean likes/posts: 117.4 [p = 0.015], mean comments/post: 6.9 [p = 0.003]).

Conclusion

Reported traumatic spine injury-related content has not been evaluated through social media avenues. This analysis demonstrates the leading role of surgeons in posting and educating the audience regarding traumatic spine injury, with the highest audience interest in survivor stories and pathologies. Our findings advance our knowledge of how social media portrays spine trauma, highlighting opportunities for future research and emphasizing the need for careful consideration of ethical and methodological challenges in social media studies related to medicine.

Keywords

Instagram - spine - traumatic spine injury - social media - spine fracture

Authors' Contributions

M.F. contributed to conceptualization, methodology, writing–review and editing, supervision, project administration, and provided the final approval of the manuscript. A.B. was responsible for data retrieval, writing the original draft, and formal analysis. H.S. contributed to writing the original draft and investigation, while M.H.A.K. was involved in writing the original draft and methodology. S.T. and A.A. participated in data retrieval, writing the original draft, and formal analysis. S.G.Z. played a key role in methodology, investigation, writing–review and editing, and final approval of the manuscript. K.U.R. contributed to conceptualization, methodology, writing–review and editing, project administration, and provided the final approval of the manuscript.




Publication History

Article published online:
25 March 2025

© 2025. Asian Congress of Neurological Surgeons. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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