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Is Cancer Information Exchanged on Social Media Scientifically Accurate?

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Abstract

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cancer Prevention and Control, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Elm & Carlton Streets, Buffalo, NY, 14263, USA

    Elizabeth A. Gage-Bouchard

  2. Department of Family Medicine, The University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Susan LaValley

  3. School of Nursing, The University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Molli Warunek

  4. Department of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Lynda Kwon Beaupin

  5. The National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, USA

    Michelle Mollica

Authors
  1. Elizabeth A. Gage-Bouchard
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  2. Susan LaValley
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  3. Molli Warunek
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  4. Lynda Kwon Beaupin
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  5. Michelle Mollica
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elizabeth A. Gage-Bouchard.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Funding

This work was supported by Roswell Park Cancer Institute and National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant P30CA016056.

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Gage-Bouchard, E.A., LaValley, S., Warunek, M. et al. Is Cancer Information Exchanged on Social Media Scientifically Accurate?. J Canc Educ 33, 1328–1332 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-017-1254-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-017-1254-z

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