Is Cancer Information Exchanged on Social Media Scientifically Accurate?

Autor: Gage-Bouchard EA; Department of Cancer Prevention and Control, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Elm & Carlton Streets, Buffalo, NY, 14263, USA. Elizabeth.bouchard@roswellpark.org., LaValley S; Department of Family Medicine, The University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA., Warunek M; School of Nursing, The University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA., Beaupin LK; Department of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA., Mollica M; The National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education [J Cancer Educ] 2018 Dec; Vol. 33 (6), pp. 1328-1332.
DOI: 10.1007/s13187-017-1254-z
Abstrakt: Cancer patients and their caregivers are increasingly using social media as a platform to share cancer experiences, connect with support, and exchange cancer-related information. Yet, little is known about the nature and scientific accuracy of cancer-related information exchanged on social media. We conducted a content analysis of 12 months of data from 18 publically available Facebook Pages hosted by parents of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (N = 15,852 posts) and extracted all exchanges of medically-oriented cancer information. We systematically coded for themes in the nature of cancer-related information exchanged on personal Facebook Pages and two oncology experts independently evaluated the scientific accuracy of each post. Of the 15,852 total posts, 171 posts contained medically-oriented cancer information. The most frequent type of cancer information exchanged was information related to treatment protocols and health services use (35%) followed by information related to side effects and late effects (26%), medication (16%), medical caregiving strategies (13%), alternative and complementary therapies (8%), and other (2%). Overall, 67% of all cancer information exchanged was deemed medically/scientifically accurate, 19% was not medically/scientifically accurate, and 14% described unproven treatment modalities. These findings highlight the potential utility of social media as a cancer-related resource, but also indicate that providers should focus on recommending reliable, evidence-based sources to patients and caregivers.
Databáze: MEDLINE
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