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Communication About Hereditary Cancers on Social Media: A Content Analysis of Tweets About Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer and Lynch Syndrome

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A Correction to this article was published on 15 May 2020

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Abstract

Social media is increasingly being used as an information source and tool for individuals and organizations to share resources and engage in conversations about health topics. Because the public tends to learn about health topics and genetics from online social media sources, it is imperative to understand the amount, type, and quality of information being shared. We performed a retrospective analysis of tweets related to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) and Lynch syndrome (LS) between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017. A total of 63,770 tweets were included in our dataset. The majority were retweets (59.9%) and users came from 744 different cities. Most tweets were considered “informational” (51.4%) and were designed to provide resources to the public. Online communities (25%), organizations (20%), and providers or researchers (15%) were among the most common contributors. Our results demonstrated that conversations were primarily focused on information and resource sharing, along with individuals discussing their personal stories and testimonials about their experiences with these HBOC and LS. Future studies could consider ways to harness Twitter to help tailor and deliver health communication campaigns and education interventions to improve the public’s understanding of these complex topics.

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  • 15 May 2020

    The original version of this article unfortunately contained mistakes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Caitlin G. Allen

  2. The National Cancer Institute, 9609 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD, 20850, USA

    Megan Roberts

  3. Boston University, 704 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    Brittany Andersen

  4. Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA, 30329, USA

    Muin J. Khoury

Authors
  1. Caitlin G. Allen
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  2. Megan Roberts
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  3. Brittany Andersen
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  4. Muin J. Khoury
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Correspondence to Caitlin G. Allen.

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Allen, C.G., Roberts, M., Andersen, B. et al. Communication About Hereditary Cancers on Social Media: A Content Analysis of Tweets About Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer and Lynch Syndrome. J Canc Educ 35, 131–137 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-018-1451-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-018-1451-4

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