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Background <p>Health-professional students increasingly learn via social-media influencers, yet the factors that make these sources trustworthy are unknown. Understanding this is critical for designing effective digital-literacy curricula. We investigated physiotherapy students’ behavioural (following, purchasing) and attitudinal (trust) responses to social-media physiotherapy influencers and identified factors associated with higher trust.</p> Methods <p>We conducted a cross-sectional, computer-assisted web survey of 314 physiotherapy students from Polish universities​​. The questionnaire captured demographics, social-media use, influencer engagement, critical-appraisal training and attitudes toward influencer content. We used ordinal logistic regression to examine how demographic, behavioural, and attitudinal variables predicted students’ trust in physiotherapy influencers.</p> Results <p>Most respondents (77.4%) followed at least one physiotherapy influencer and 46% had bought products they endorsed​​. Overall, 61% expressed high trust​​. Trust in influencers was most strongly predicted by frequent information-seeking from influencers (OR = 3.54, 95% CI 2.45–5.22), perceiving them as more informative than academic staff (OR = 2.00, 95% CI 1.46–2.76), and intensive Instagram use (OR = 1.41, 95% CI 1.06–1.87). In contrast, age, study year, and prior critical-appraisal training were not significant predictors of trust. Although 62% acknowledged commercial bias, these students still reported high trust and continued engagement, revealing cognitive dissonance.</p> Conclusions <p>Physiotherapy students trust social-media influencers for professional knowledge, with platform use and perceived informativeness outweighing formal training in shaping this trust. To address this disconnect, medical-education programmes should move beyond traditional critical appraisal and embed authentic, influencer-based digital-literacy exercises that reflect students’ real-world media habits and tackle credibility cues and commercial persuasion.</p>

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Physiotherapy students’ trust in social-media physiotherapy influencers: implications for digital-literacy training in medical education

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年8月28日

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  • Bartosz Wilczyński,
  • Hubert Antczak,
  • Karol de Tillier,
  • Marcin Taraszkiewicz,
  • Krzysztof Sobczak³,
  • Katarzyna Zorena

摘要

Background

Health-professional students increasingly learn via social-media influencers, yet the factors that make these sources trustworthy are unknown. Understanding this is critical for designing effective digital-literacy curricula. We investigated physiotherapy students’ behavioural (following, purchasing) and attitudinal (trust) responses to social-media physiotherapy influencers and identified factors associated with higher trust.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional, computer-assisted web survey of 314 physiotherapy students from Polish universities​​. The questionnaire captured demographics, social-media use, influencer engagement, critical-appraisal training and attitudes toward influencer content. We used ordinal logistic regression to examine how demographic, behavioural, and attitudinal variables predicted students’ trust in physiotherapy influencers.

Results

Most respondents (77.4%) followed at least one physiotherapy influencer and 46% had bought products they endorsed​​. Overall, 61% expressed high trust​​. Trust in influencers was most strongly predicted by frequent information-seeking from influencers (OR = 3.54, 95% CI 2.45–5.22), perceiving them as more informative than academic staff (OR = 2.00, 95% CI 1.46–2.76), and intensive Instagram use (OR = 1.41, 95% CI 1.06–1.87). In contrast, age, study year, and prior critical-appraisal training were not significant predictors of trust. Although 62% acknowledged commercial bias, these students still reported high trust and continued engagement, revealing cognitive dissonance.

Conclusions

Physiotherapy students trust social-media influencers for professional knowledge, with platform use and perceived informativeness outweighing formal training in shaping this trust. To address this disconnect, medical-education programmes should move beyond traditional critical appraisal and embed authentic, influencer-based digital-literacy exercises that reflect students’ real-world media habits and tackle credibility cues and commercial persuasion.