Including Words Like “God” And “Pray” In Facebook Posts Can Help Doctors Spot Diabetes

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There’s no shortage of studies suggesting how bad social media is for our health. However, there is now research indicating that what we post on Facebook can be helpful in predicting mental health disorders and diseases.

According to a new study published in PLOS One, what we post on Facebook can actually be an indication of mental and physical health problems. For example, researchers found that Facebook posts using the words “drink” and “bottle” predicted alcohol abuse.

While that example might seem obvious, the study also suggested that those who posted words like “God” and “pray” most often were 15 times more likely to be diabetic. Posts with words like “dumb” also indicated drug abuse and psychosis.

This study follows a related study from last year in which the results suggested that Facebook posts could predict depression three months before a diagnosis in a clinic.

The researchers are hopeful that the new data can help provide information to clinicians and could be helpful to avid social media users. While it’s still too early to depend on Facebook for health checkups, it might be a good idea to pay more attention to what we (and those we care about) share on social media.

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