Digital influencers and the spread of irrational drug use

Abstract

The figure of the digital influencer has become fundamental within social networks in reaching the consumer public market since it determines the direction of its thousands and even millions of followers. As a consequence of this whole range of influence, companies, brands, and industries from the most diverse branches began to establish partnerships for advertising and publicizing their products in the field of beauty, food, fashion, and, mainly, health, for example, corroborating with self-medication. Digital Influencer refers to an individual who is a reference and who has the power to influence his followers, managing to increase sales of the product he promotes. Because of the above, the methodology adopted was descriptive, exploratory, and observational, with a cross-sectional design, through the application of a semi-structured questionnaire. This study aims to evaluate digital influencers and their strategies that increase the risk of irrational drug use by students of undergraduate courses in the health area. As for the results obtained from the collected data, it was found that most of the respondents were female; the age of participants in the samples ranged from 17 to 48 years. Regarding the irrational use of medication, the majority, 90.8% (n = 128), claimed to know the subject, and 75.7% (n = 109) stated that influencers generally suggest some medication with the purpose of self-medication. About using medication due to digital influencers, 73.2% (n = 115) claimed not to use medication recommended by “influencers.” Finally, it can be seen that the present research that the analyzed theme demonstrated the complexity and the need to have a follow-up of the supervisory bodies about what is produced by influencers in social networks, above all, in the field of self-medication, since it became Of course, the use of drugs without proper authorization from the professional is dangerous and may cause irreversible damage.