Analysis of Instagram publications on bronchial asthma and their compliance with GINA

<bold>Background:</bold> Social networks are one of the main sources of information for patients with various diseases of the respiratory system. <bold>Objective:</bold> To analyze the content of Instagram publications on bronchial asthma for compliance with GINA. <bold>Methods:</bold> We searched and analyzed publications on Instagram in Ukrainian with the hashtags "bronchial asthma", "bronchial_asthma", "bronchial", "asthma" in December 2023. <bold>Results:</bold> From 308 publications only 191 met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed. Among them, Instagram posts – 91.1% (n=174), Instagram videos – 8.9% (n=17). The content of publications: advertising – 42.9% (n=82), educational information – 46.6% (n=89), information about reimbursement medicines – 8.9% (n=17), and others. There were three groups of the authors: healthcare workers – 25.7% (n=49), persons without medical education 9.9% (n=19), and no information available – 64.4% (n=123). GINA 2023 recommendations were met by 72.8% of publications (n=139). It was found that compliance of the publications with GINA written by authors without medical education was significantly lower than that of authors with medical education (15.8% vs. 81.6%, p<0.001) or authors without available information about education (15.8% vs. 78.0%, p<0.001). No significant difference was found between GINA compliance and the publications of authors with medical education or authors without available information about education. <bold>Conclusion:</bold> In the Ukrainian-language segment of Instagram, most publications on bronchial asthma were compliant with GINA. The absence of relevant medical education of the author was a factor in non-compliance with the GINA protocol.