Your Phone May Be Giving You Health Advice — But Who Is Checking It?

A headache starts in the middle of the day. Before reaching for a medicine cabinet, you may reach for something else: your phone.

Within seconds, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook or WhatsApp can offer dozens of explanations. One person blames dehydration. Another recommends an herbal mixture. Someone else suggests a medicine. A confident-looking creator may even tell you exactly what condition you have.

The information is fast. It is accessible. Sometimes, it is useful.

But there is one question we should ask more often:

Who is checking the advice?

For many young Ghanaians, social media has become part of the way they discover, interpret and share health information. A 2026 qualitative study of 22 young people aged 18–30 in Accra, Obuasi and Winneba found that participants relied heavily on platforms including TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube for health-related information. The study also found that young people often trusted content that felt authentic, relatable and culturally relevant, while experiencing difficulty evaluating credibility and dealing with the burden of navigating health information on their own.

That creates a strange problem. We have more health information at our fingertips than ever before, yet having more information does not necessarily mean having better information.

The World Health Organization uses the term infodemic to describe an overabundance of information, including false or misleading information, that can create confusion and contribute to risk-taking behaviours that may harm health.

The problem becomes more serious when complicated medical questions are reduced to simple promises.

“Drink this every morning and your blood sugar will disappear.”

“Stop taking your medication.”

“This herb cures cancer.”

“Doctors will never tell you this.”

Such statements can sound convincing because they offer certainty. But healthcare is rarely that simple. Symptoms can have different causes, and appropriate treatment may depend on a person's medical history, examination and, in some cases, laboratory investigations.

Social media itself is not the enemy.

It can help people find information, communicate with others and learn about health. The problem begins when popularity is mistaken for expertise, personal experience is mistaken for scientific evidence, and repeated exposure is mistaken for proof.

A 2024 peer-reviewed review in Health Policy and Technology examined the social-media infodemic surrounding health misinformation and discussed how social-media platforms can contribute to the spread of misleading health information. The authors also examined technical approaches for addressing the problem and promoting more reliable health information.

This means that the post appearing repeatedly on your feed is not necessarily the most accurate one. It may simply be the content that has attracted the most attention.

So what should we do?

We should learn to pause before we believe—and especially before we share.

The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health recommends asking five basic questions when evaluating health information on social media: Who created the information? What is it promising? When was it written or reviewed? Is it based on scientific research? And is the source trying to sell something?

These questions may seem simple, but they can prevent poor decisions.

Before forwarding a health message to a WhatsApp group, check where it came from. Before trying a treatment recommended by an influencer, look for evidence from a credible health organisation or scientific publication. Before stopping a prescribed medicine because of something you watched online, speak to a qualified healthcare professional.

Ghana is also beginning to respond to the wider challenge of online misinformation. In April 2026, the Ghana News Agency reported the launch of a three-year Anti-Disinformation Coalition project in Accra. The initiative, implemented by Penplusbytes with funding from the Royal Norwegian Embassy, aims to use collaborative action, localised research and AI-powered tools to help young people identify, verify and counter false information online.

But fighting misinformation cannot be left entirely to governments, health professionals or technology companies.

Individuals have a role too.

We must become more comfortable with saying, “I don't know if this is true.”

That simple sentence may be more valuable than confidently forwarding a message simply because it sounds convincing.

Our phones are powerful health-information tools. They can help us learn, connect with others and find credible health resources.

But a smartphone cannot automatically distinguish a well-supported medical fact from a confident lie simply because both appear on the same screen.

The responsibility, therefore, is not to stop searching.

It is to start questioning.

Because when it comes to our health, the most viewed advice is not necessarily the most trustworthy—and the person speaking with the most confidence is not necessarily the person with the most knowledge.

Before you believe it, check it. Before you try it, ask. And before you share it, verify it.

References

1. Atta-Doku, J. F., Saansong, A. A. O., & Sarpong, E. K. (2026). “‘We’re doing our best, but we’re doing it alone’: navigating trust, social media use for health, and the systemic absence of institutional health support among Ghanaian youth.” BMC Digital Health, 4, 10.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s44247-026-00245-0

2. World Health Organization. Infodemic. WHO Health Topics.

"WHO — Infodemic" (https://reference-url-citation.invalid/7)

3. Rodrigues, F., Newell, R., Rathnaiah Babu, G., Chatterjee, T., Sandhu, N. K., & Gupta, L. (2024). “The social media Infodemic of health-related misinformation and technical solutions.” Health Policy and Technology, 13(2), 100846.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlpt.2024.100846

4. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). Know the Science: Finding Health Information on Social Media. National Institutes of Health.

"NCCIH — Finding Health Information on Social Media" (https://reference-url-citation.invalid/10)

5. Ghana News Agency. (2026, April 25). “Anti-disinformation coalition project launched in Accra.” Ghana News Agency.

"Ghana News Agency — Anti-disinformation coalition project launched in Accra" (https://reference-url-citation.invalid/12)