**4. Conclusions**

This paper examines trends in research focused on social media related to health and young people, including prevalence, topics, global distribution, and the networks of researchers involved.

Although the trajectory of relevant research remained relatively stable over the first thirty years profiled in our analysis, a significant increase can be seen between 2003 and 2018, correlating with the popularity of online social networks, especially among young people [21]. In addition, during that decade, the idea of using technology for following or supporting patients at a distance emerged and increased [77]. In this sense, social media has been utilized for support systems for patients, such as cancer patients, or to receive feedback from patients [78,79].

It is also essential to highlight the types of research seen in the review. For example, in terms of the research from Scopus, most publications were original articles in the form of quantitative cross-sectional studies or controlled trials. Another significant result was the topics of the studies, which were based on keywords, and showed a variety of multiple sub-areas of the health field relating to social networks, such as mental health, education, or chronic diseases.

The second significant finding was that collaboration between authors and countries seems to be led by the United States, acting as the standard connection between countries and authors. Based on this, significant countries in terms of health prevention measures and the health system, as well as the number of inhabitants, might be linked to the prevalence of studies on the role of social networks in health interventions and as a risk factor [60,80,81].

Regarding the areas of studies undertaken in the field of social networks in health, the area of medicine (50.7%) stands out as the most relevant. As previously stated, the supremacy of this area might be related to its evolution and relevance [59].

This work also determined communities by using the collaborations between countries found in the bibliometric study. Five clusters were identified, with the most significant focused on the actual usability of the social networks for educational purposes. Moreover, these results have shown how most countries are connected to the United States. These results seem consistent with previous results in the health field about the leading role of the United States [52]. The clusters are formed by those countries with traditional political, historical, and economic relationships. In general, therefore, it seems that the use of social networks in the health field, especially for young people, continues to grow as a tool, particularly for educational purposes, in certain places.

Nevertheless, like any research, this study has limitations. One source of weakness in this study that could have affected the measurement of the data is the choice of keywords used to interrogate the databases. This research focused on including different terms for social networks, more than including other terms for young people, such as "youth". This was primarily to avoid the possible inclusion of publications not focused on any human population, such as those with the keyword "regenerative youth". Additionally, some critical authors in this topic have not been included, or their presence is less representative. Moreover, the study of keywords and, therefore, the topic of the documents, might not represent the totality of the research carried out in the health field, as the keywords used were not MeSH terms. Finally, the boolean operators used, which were "OR" and "AND", may have included some publications with the terms of the search, though the topic of study was different. However, based on the sample size, the number of the publications with different topic would produce an insignificant change in the result obtained in this study.

Overall, these findings have significant implications for the understanding of how the future of healthcare may lead to using social media in education and communication with patients. Additionally, this bibliometric analysis adds to the literature by elucidating the growing importance of social networks in health research, both as a topic of study and as a means of supporting scientific collaboration. This may help to inform future investments in public health research and surveillance using these different data sources, which may be particularly relevant for young people, who are a traditionally "hard to reach" group [82]. The bibliometric visualizations also provide an accessible means of communicating the key findings to researchers, policymakers, and those working in public health.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, P.A.-M. and M.V.-A.; methodology, P.A.-M. and M.P.M.-J.; validation A.-J.P.-M.; formal analysis, P.A.-M. and A.-J.P.-M.; investigation, P.A.-M. and A.-J.P.-M.; resources, M.P.M.-J. and A.-J.P.-M.; data curation, M.D.R.-M.; writing—original draft preparation, P.A.-M., M.P.M.-J., and A.-J.P.-M.; writing—review and editing, M.V.-A. and C.P.; visualization, C.P.; supervision, M.D.R.-M., C.P., and M.V.-A.; project administration, M.V.-A. and M.P.M.-J.; funding acquisition, M.V.-A.

**Funding:** UCO Social Innova Project Galileo IV from the institution of OTRI of the University of Cordoba, Spain and the funding provided from "IDEP/Escuela de Doctorado" of the University of Cordoba.

**Acknowledgments:** We would also like to thank UCO Social Innova Project Galileo IV from the institution of OTRI of the University of Cordoba, Spain, and the funding provided from "IDEP/Escuela de Doctorado" of the University of Cordoba to one of the authors. The content is the responsibility of the authors, and does not necessarily represent the official views of the OTRI.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
