An Analysis of Pediatric Ophthalmology Content on Instagram

Purpose: To analyze pediatric ophthalmology–related information on Instagram (Meta Platforms, Inc). Methods: A cross-sectional study queried 112 common eye terms and conditions from the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus website as hashtags on Instagram. A categorical classification system was used to analyze the top 9 posts per hashtag for likes, comments, views, and engagement level ratio (ELR). Posts were further characterized by author and content type. Results: Analysis of the top 901 posts that met our inclusion criteria revealed a cumulative 424,608 likes, 15,793 comments, and 2,873,042 views. Authors had a total of 76,076,455 followers. Patients/families created the greatest number of posts (37.6%), followed by companies (20.2%), other (14.9%), medical organizations (12.3%), international ophthalmologists (6.1%), optometrists (5.9%), and American Board of Ophthalmology–certified ophthalmologists (3.0%). Content was mostly patient experience (42.4%), followed by educational (29.7%), self-promotional (13.5%), other (10.5%), and career-related (3.8%). Companies authored the highest number of educational posts (23.5%), followed by medical institutions (20.9%), other (19.4%), international ophthalmologists (13.8%), optometrists (13.4%), and American Board of Ophthalmology–certified ophthalmologists (4.5%) and patients (4.5%). Conclusions: Although pediatric ophthalmology content presented by board-certified ophthalmology Instagram authors had a greater number of followers than most other author categories, ophthalmologist authors on Instagram are still underrepresented. Additional research is warranted to help promote ophthalmologist-authored posts.