Validity and Sources of WhatsApp Health Messages Used by the Public in Saudi Arabia: An Observational Study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Social media is a platform that allows users to communicate and share information or ideas and experiences. Health information found on social media is written and shared by people from different educational and credibility levels. OBJECTIVE To estimate the validity and safety of Arabic language health information messages circulated on WhatsApp and to classify them into different categories based on their credibility and sources. METHODS A descriptive-analytical, cross-sectional study was conducted from Feb-April 2021. A convenience sampling technique was used. Students from Common First Preparatory Year College at King Saud University participated through sharing three health-related WhatsApp messages that they or their relatives have read recently. Four Board-certified physicians reviewed and classified the messages into categories based on their credibility and sources. RESULTS Two hundred eighty-two (282) students filled out a socio-demographic characteristics questionnaire and 63% of them were female students. Out of the 326 messages, 86% were either invalid or inaccurate. Most messages (83.7%) were from unknown sources. 8.3% of the messages were obtained from known sources but written by unqualified persons represented 8.3% of the messages. Written by qualified persons (5.8%) or trusted scientific sources (2.1%) represented only 8% of the total messages. There was a significant association between the sources and the validity of the message’s information. Most of the messages from unknown sources or unqualified persons were either invalid or invalid with potential risk. CONCLUSIONS This study showed a high percentage of inaccurate and invalid health-related messages on WhatsApp. Invalid with potential risk messages were mainly from unknown sources or unqualified persons. Most of the health messages written by trusted authorities and qualified persons were valid. Trusted scientific authorities should be more active in social media platforms, and they should advise the community on how to discern the validity of such messages. More efforts are needed to guide the patients from where to get accurate and valid health information.