Bergman B, Wu W, Marsch L. (2020). Associations between substance use and Instagram participation to inform social network-based screening models: Multimodal cross-sectional study. JMIR. 22(9): e21916. doi: 10.2196/21916
Researchers recruited Instagram users ages 18-73 years (n = 3117) to examine associations between substance use and Instagram participation and explore whether age, gender, and race/ethnicity moderate these relationships. Recruitment occurred through Clickerworker (a paid crowdsourcing platform), word of mouth, and social media advertisements. Participants reported past-year substance use at baseline, including at-risk drinking (more than a few alcoholic drinks per day), use of illegal drugs (e.g. heroin, cocaine), and prescription drug misuse (nonmedical use of prescription medications (e.g. opioid painkillers, benzodiazepines). Researchers analysed downloaded participant Instagram posts using machine learning algorithms. Overall, any at-risk drinking was significantly correlated with a 51.6% greater likelihood of any Instagram posts and 88.1% more total posts, compared with no at-risk drinking. Only among Hispanic/Latino participants was there no relationship between at-risk drinking and total number of Instagram posts. Compared with no illegal drug use, any illegal drug use was significantly associated with a 77.0% greater likelihood of any Instagram posts but a similar number of total posts. Prescription drug misuse did not appear to increase likelihood of any posts or total number of posts. For participants 39 years or older, prescription drug misuse correlated with 77.9% fewer total Instagram posts, compared with no prescription drug misuse. Age and gender did not significantly moderate any relationships between Instagram participation and at-risk drinking and illegal drug use and at-risk drinking, illegal drug use, and prescription drug misuse, respectively. Insights into correlations between substance use and social network site (SNS) participation may be useful in the development of SNS-based substance use screening tools.