Not All Diabetes Social Networking Sites Are The Same!

As we are all aware, the growth of online social networking for chronic medical conditions such as diabetes has been nothing short of astounding in recent years. As a clinician seeing people with diabetes (type 1 and type 2, young and old) on a daily basis it is quite clear that more and more people are becoming better informed becasue of these sites. However I am also spending increasing amounts of time “myth-busting” – changing perceptions about diabetes monitoring and treatment that have been based on dubious information obtained from some sites. So next time you log on to your favourite site ask yourself a few questions before you take on board the advice and especially before divulging information about yourself. Here are a few "check" questions:

• Does the site verify that the “experts” responding to your questions are who they say they are? Are they experienced in diabetes care or have experience living with the condition?
• Ask yourself who checks the site content for accuracy – an administrator, a person with diabetes, a nurse educator a doctor or no-one?
• Who pays for the site and is there a conflict of interest in terms of advertising and the information on the site?

Researchers from the US have recently published results of a survey of on-line social networking sites for diabetes in the medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine (the actual reference is Arch Intern Med 2011, Volume 171 (NO.17), pages 1589-91, http://www.archinternmed.com/). The researchers have highlighted the fact that high profile sites with many thousands of members can differ widely in the above aspects. many sites are dependent upon funding from Pharmaceutical, Diabetes Device and Insurance companies and that the majority also advertise products from the diet and exercise industry space. There is nothing wrong fundamentally with this but it is important to be aware of this given that there might occasionally be a conflict of interest.

I will ask the medical journal (Archives of Internal Medicine) if they are happy for me to post details of some specific sites here as you might like to see this report and check out your favourite site. Any questions ping me an email at info@VoyageMD.com or send a tweet (@GoDiabetesMD).