Social media influencers are ‘fearmongering’ to promote health tests with limited evidence, study finds

Researchers warn of harms of overdiagnosis for generally healthy people as well as the cost of tests themselves

Influencers are appealing to emotional narratives around health and often “fearmongering” to promote controversial medical tests on social media, a new study has found, in ways that are overwhelmingly misleading and fail to mention potential harms.

The research, led by the University of Sydney and published on Thursday in the American Medical Association’s open access journal JAMA Network Open, investigated five tests being discussed on social media despite limited evidence of their benefits for generally healthy people and concerns about overdiagnosis.

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