TOPLINE:

Social media posts about major drug classes often lacked clear commercial disclosures, with 80.1% containing potentially undisclosed promotional content from influencers. Only 2.2% of posts included explicit sponsorship tags, and many did not provide information on adverse effects or risks.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 84,472 social media posts on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
• They identified 740 posts with high levels of engagement that were deemed relevant to FDA or Federal Trade Commission oversight, focusing on promotional claims or off-label use. These posts discussed GLP-1 agonists, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder stimulants, or autoimmune biologics.
• The main outcome was content from patients, influencers, or healthcare creators who did not disclose financial ties to products.

TAKEAWAY:

• Patients or consumers (65.9%) and influencers (42.7%) were the most prominent sources of high-engagement, regulatory-relevant posts across platforms, whereas pharmaceutical companies contributed minimally (4.5%).
• Promotional language was used in 23.6% of the posts, with Instagram having the highest prevalence at 33.0%; 15.7% of the posts included calls to action such as “ask your doctor” or “visit our website to get started,” with the highest prevalence on Instagram at 23.1%.
• Undisclosed influencer promotion was identified in 80.1% of the posts, and only 2.2% of the posts included explicit sponsorship tags, with Facebook having the highest prevalence at 4.7%.
• Overall, 69.1% of the posts made claims related to efficacy, but only 32.3% of these also mentioned risks or adverse effects, leading to a skewed information environment.

IN PRACTICE:

“These findings suggest that posts circumvented established advertising principles and potentially eroded the fair balance crucial for informed patient decision-making,” the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Alex Kresovich, PhD, of the Public Health Department at the University of Chicago, Chicago. It was published online on November 13, 2025, in JAMA.

LIMITATIONS:

The findings may not be applicable to all classes of drugs, and the focus on high-engagement posts may not represent the full spectrum of social media content. 

DISCLOSURES:

This study was funded by Arnold Ventures. No relevant conflicts of interest were reported by the authors.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.