Informational Quality of Retinol Content on Social Media – A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Authors

  • Trina Nguyen Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24377/LJMU.jsml.article2562

Keywords:

retinol, social media, information quality, acne, photoaging, retinoic acid, consumer education

Abstract

While social media is a popular tool to disseminate dermatologic information, the informational quality of the available retinol content has not been assessed. We conducted a cross-sectional study by querying for Instagram posts about retinol on January 24th, 2023, and analyzed ninety-seven posts using the DISCERN metric, a validated instrument for judging the quality of written consumer health information. The majority of assessed posts had a DISCERN score under 2 (out of 5), with an average score of 1.27/5 (SD of 0.56). This study highlights the lack of high-quality information on the topic of retinol on Instagram and the importance of consumer caution when seeking information online.

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Published

2026-03-10

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2025): 10th Anniversary Edition

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Trina Nguyen

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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