Social media can help older adults find health information, connect with others, and receive support. But the same platforms can also create conditions that make misleading health claims difficult to evaluate and correct.
A new article coauthored by Dr. Matthew Morse, assistant professor of Communication Studies in Louisiana Tech University’s School of Human Inquiry, examines how these risks develop and what more effective health communication might look like.
The article, A Perfect Storm: How Social Media May Heighten Older Adults’ Vulnerability to Health Misinformation, appears in Educational Gerontology. The work is an interdisciplinary collaboration among Morse, Kacie Mennie (Tech), and Mark LaCour (UL Lafayette), bringing together perspectives from communication and psychology.
Drawing on research across health communication, cognitive aging, digital literacy, and misinformation, the authors examine how social media features interact with changes in memory and attention, differences in health and digital literacy, and trust within social networks. Together, these conditions may make misleading information easier to encounter and remember while making verification more demanding.
For example, someone may remember a health claim but forget whether it came from a healthcare professional, an advertisement, or a friend’s post. Repeated exposure can make the claim feel familiar even when the details needed to evaluate its credibility have faded.
The review emphasizes that older adults are a diverse population. Age alone does not determine vulnerability, and social media can provide meaningful benefits. Understanding risk requires considering people’s experiences, resources, relationships, and the information environments they encounter.
The authors also examine approaches to addressing misinformation, including warning labels, corrections, and educational interventions. They argue that effective communication should make accurate information easier to understand, remember, and verify without placing unnecessary demands on users. Clear explanations, visible source information, and respectful dialogue through trusted relationships are promising directions, although more research is needed to test these approaches directly with older adults.
The review calls for researchers, healthcare professionals, educators, and digital platforms to develop and evaluate strategies that support informed decisions while preserving older adults’ autonomy.
The article is available at https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2026.2744721. For free access to the full article, contact Dr. Matthew Morse at mmorse@latech.edu.