JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Individuals with psychosis are heavy consumers of social media. It is unknown to which degree measures of social functioning include measures of online social activity.

Objective:

To examine the inclusion of social media activity in measures of social functioning in psychosis and ultra high-risk for psychosis. Design: Systematic review. Data sources: Epistemonikos, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effect (DARE), MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsycINFO. Eligibility criteria for study selection: Empirical study published in English language in peer reviewed journals, with a sample meeting criteria (DSM/ICD) for a psychotic disorder or ultra high risk for psychosis, and including a measure of social functioning. Papers published between January 2004 and February 2019 were included. Data extraction: The electronic search resulted in 11.844 distinct articles. Full-text evaluation was conducted on 719 articles of which 597 articles met inclusion criteria.

Results:

58 social functioning measures were identified. With some exceptions, reports on reliability and validity were scarce and only one measures integrated social media social activity.

Conclusions:

The ecological validity of social functioning measures is challenged by the lack of assessment of social media activity as it fails to reflect an important aspect of the current social reality of persons with psychosis. Measures should be revised to include social media activity and thus avoid the clinical consequences of inadequate assessment of social functioning. Trial registration: The protocol was registered at PROSPERO International prospective register of systematic reviews in March 2017. Registration number: CRD42017058514.