US researchers evaluated the quality of Instagram posts about amblyopia using the currency, reliability, authority and purpose (CRAP) test, concluding it is underused by eyecare professionals for public education.

Writing in Strabismus, researchers from New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, Georgetown University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said they evaluated the top 200 publicly available Instagram posts about amblyopia between October and December 2022. While a quarter of posts were from eyecare providers, only 3% were specifically from paediatric ophthalmologists, they found. Most posts, however, were from businesses (51%), which researchers considered lower quality.

“Instagram represents a tremendous opportunity to educate the public. Better utilising this resource may allow medical professionals to broadly spread accurate, unbiased data,” they concluded.