Understanding the Lived Experience of Patients with Melanoma: Real-World Evidence Generated through a European Social Media Listening Analysis (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jyoti Chauhan ◽  
Sathyaraj Aasaithambi ◽  
Iván Márquez-Rodas ◽  
Luigi Formisano ◽  
Sophie Papa ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Cutaneous melanoma is an aggressive malignancy that is proposed to account for 90% of skin cancer-related mortality. Individuals with melanoma experience both physical and psychological impacts associated with their diagnosis and treatment. Health-related information is being increasingly accessed and shared by stakeholders on social media platforms. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to assess how individuals living with melanoma use social media to discuss their needs and provide their perceptions of the disease, from across 14 European countries. METHODS Social media sources including Twitter, forums, and blogs were searched using predefined search strings of keywords relating to melanoma. Manual and automated relevancy approaches filtered the extracted data for content that provided patient-centric insights. This contextualized data was then mined for insightful concepts around symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, impacts, and the lived experiences of melanoma. RESULTS A total of 182,000 posts related to melanoma were identified between November 2018‒November 2020. Following exclusion of irrelevant posts and using random sampling methodology, 864 posts were identified as relevant to the study objectives. Of the social media channels included, Twitter was the most commonly used, followed by forums and blogs. Most posts originated from the UK (38%) and Spain (16%). Sixty-two percent of relevant posts were categorized as originating from individuals with melanoma. The most frequently discussed melanoma-related topics were treatment (55%), diagnosis and tests (33%), and remission (24%). The majority of treatment discussions were about surgery (67%), followed by immunotherapy (12%). In total, 255 posts discussed the impacts of melanoma, which included emotional burden (70%), physical impacts (24%), effects on social life (17%), and financial impacts (4%). CONCLUSIONS Findings from this study highlight how melanoma stakeholders discuss key concepts associated with the condition on social media, adding to the conceptual model of the patient journey. This social media listening approach is a powerful tool in exploring melanoma stakeholder perspectives, providing insights that can be used to corroborate existing data and inform future studies.

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 95-97
Author(s):  
Jeevan Bhatta ◽  
Sharmistha Sharma ◽  
Shashi Kandel ◽  
Roshan Nepal

Social media is a common platform that enables its users to share opinions, personal experiences, perspectives with one another instantaneously, globally. It has played a paramount role during pandemics such as COVID-19 and unveiled itself as a crucial means to communicate between the sources and the individuals. However, it also has become a place to disseminate misinformation and fake news rapidly. Infodemic, a plethora of information, some authentic some not makes it even harder to general people to receive factual and trustworthy information when required, has grown to be a major risk to public health and social media is developing as a trendy platform for this infodemic. This commentary aims to explore how social media has affected the current situation. We also aim to share our insight to control this misinformation.  This commentary contributes to evolving knowledge to counter fake news or health-related information shared over various social media platforms.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 559-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aniruddha K. Deshpande ◽  
Shruti Balvalli Deshpande ◽  
Colleen O'Brien

PurposeAs more people experience tinnitus, social awareness of tinnitus has consequently increased, due in part to the Internet. Social media platforms are being used increasingly by patients to seek health-related information for various conditions including tinnitus. These online platforms may be used to seek guidance from and share experiences with individuals suffering from a similar disorder. Some social media platforms can also be used to communicate with health care providers. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of tinnitus-related information on social media platforms.MethodThe present investigation analyzed the portrayal of tinnitus-related information across 3 social media platforms: Facebook (pages and groups), Twitter, and YouTube. We performed a comprehensive analysis of the platforms using the key words “tinnitus” and “ringing in the ears.” The results on each platform were manually examined by 2 reviewers based on social media activity metrics, such as “likes,” “followers,” and “comments.”ResultsThe different social media platforms yielded diverse results, allowing individuals to learn about tinnitus, seek support, advocate for tinnitus awareness, and connect with medical professionals. The greatest activity was seen on Facebook pages, followed by YouTube videos. Various degrees of misinformation were found across all social media platforms.ConclusionsThe present investigation reveals copious amounts of tinnitus-related information on different social media platforms, which the community with tinnitus may use to learn about and cope with the condition. Audiologists must be aware that tinnitus sufferers often turn to social media for additional help and should understand the current climate of how tinnitus is portrayed. Clinicians should be equipped to steer individuals with tinnitus toward valid information.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yankun Gao ◽  
Zidian Xie ◽  
Li Sun ◽  
Chenliang Xu ◽  
Dongmei Li

BACKGROUND Although government agencies acknowledge that messages about the adverse health effects of e-cigarette use should be promoted on social media, effectively delivering those health messages is challenging. Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms among US youth and young adults, and it has been used to educate the public about the potential harm of vaping through antivaping posts. OBJECTIVE We aim to analyze the characteristics of and user engagement with antivaping posts on Instagram to inform future message development and information delivery. METHODS A total of 11,322 Instagram posts were collected from November 18, 2019, to January 2, 2020, by using antivaping hashtags including #novape, #novaping, #stopvaping, #dontvape, #antivaping, #quitvaping, #antivape, #stopjuuling, #dontvapeonthepizza, and #escapethevape. Among those posts, 1025 posts were randomly selected and 500 antivaping posts were further identified by hand coding. The image type, image content, and account type of antivaping posts were hand coded, the text information in the caption was explored by topic modeling, and the user engagement of each category was compared. RESULTS Analyses found that antivaping images of the <i>educational/warning</i> type were the most common (253/500; 50.6%). The average likes of the <i>educational/warning</i> type (15 likes/post) were significantly lower than the <i>catchphrase</i> image type (these emphasized a slogan such as “athletesdontvape” in the image; 32.5 likes/post; <i>P</i>&lt;.001). The majority of the antivaping posts contained the image content element <i>text</i> (n=332, 66.4%), followed by the image content element <i>people/person</i> (n=110, 22%). The images containing <i>people/person</i> elements (32.8 likes/post) had more likes than the images containing other elements (13.8-21.1 likes/post). The captions of the antivaping Instagram posts covered topics including “lung health,” “teen vaping,” “stop vaping,” and “vaping death cases.” Among the 500 antivaping Instagram posts, while most posts were from the <i>antivaping community</i> (n=177, 35.4%) and <i>personal</i> account types (n=182, 36.4%), the <i>antivaping community</i> account type had the highest average number of posts (1.69 posts/account). However, there was no difference in the number of likes among different account types. CONCLUSIONS Multiple features of antivaping Instagram posts may be related to user engagement and perception. This study identified the critical elements associated with high user engagement, which could be used to design antivaping posts to deliver health-related information more efficiently.


2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Soumya Swaroop Sahoo ◽  
Dinesh Prasad Sahu ◽  
Ankita Kankaria

In this ongoing SARS-CoV2 Corona virus pandemic, we are witnessing an uninhibited spread of mis-information on various social media platforms. This spread of mis-information or “mis-infodemic” is playing a negative role in our fight against the virus with far reaching consequences. International organizations like the WHO and other governmental organizations have geared up to the occasion to limit the spread of these and bring clarity in this context. In this time of crisis, risk communication is vital in the communication between organizations/government and the people. But apart from the organizations, the onus is on the people and media to realise the importance and verify the authenticity of information being circulated. It is imperative that information, being a double edged sword, is handled with caution and effective communication strategies are devised for the dissemination of accurate and scientific health related information. Social media can be used in a constructive way in mitigating the effects of this pandemic for the betterment of the society.


Author(s):  
Max Z. Li ◽  
Megan S. Ryerson

Community outreach and engagement efforts are critical to an airport’s role as an ever-evolving transportation infrastructure and regional economic driver. As online social media platforms continue to grow in both popularity and influence, a new engagement channel between airports and the public is emerging. However, the motivations behind and effectiveness of these social media channels remain unclear. In this work, we address this knowledge gap by better understanding the advantages, impact, and best practices of this newly emerging engagement channel available to airports. Focusing specifically on airport YouTube channels, we first document quantitative viewership metrics, and examine common content characteristics within airport YouTube videos. We then conduct interviews and site visits with relevant airport stakeholders to identify the motivations and workflow behind these videos. Finally, we facilitate sample focus groups designed to survey public perceptions of the effectiveness and value of these videos. From our four project phases, to maximize content effectiveness and community engagement potential, we synthesize the following framework of action items, recommendations, and best practices: (C) Consistency and community; (O) Organizational structure; (M) Momentum; (B) Branding and buy-in; (A) Activity; (T) Two-way engagement; (E) Enthusiasm; and (D) Depth, or as a convenient initialism, our COMBATED framework.


Trials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren E. Wisk ◽  
Russell G. Buhr

Abstract Background In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated adoption of scarce resource allocation (SRA) policies, we sought to rapidly deploy a novel survey to ascertain community values and preferences for SRA and to test the utility of a brief intervention to improve knowledge of and values alignment with a new SRA policy. Given social distancing and precipitous evolution of the pandemic, Internet-enabled recruitment was deemed the best method to engage a community-based sample. We quantify the efficiency and acceptability of this Internet-based recruitment for engaging a trial cohort and describe the approach used for implementing a health-related trial entirely online using off-the-shelf tools. Methods We recruited 1971 adult participants (≥ 18 years) via engagement with community partners and organizations and outreach through direct and social media messaging. We quantified response rate and participant characteristics of our sample, examine sample representativeness, and evaluate potential non-response bias. Results Recruitment was similarly derived from direct referral from partner organizations and broader social media based outreach, with extremely low study entry from organic (non-invited) search activity. Of social media platforms, Facebook was the highest yield recruitment source. Bot activity was present but minimal and identifiable through meta-data and engagement behavior. Recruited participants differed from broader populations in terms of sex, ethnicity, and education, but had similar prevalence of chronic conditions. Retention was satisfactory, with entrance into the first follow-up survey for 61% of those invited. Conclusions We demonstrate that rapid recruitment into a longitudinal intervention trial via social media is feasible, efficient, and acceptable. Recruitment in conjunction with community partners representing target populations, and with outreach across multiple platforms, is recommended to optimize sample size and diversity. Trial implementation, engagement tracking, and retention are feasible with off-the-shelf tools using preexisting platforms. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04373135. Registered on May 4, 2020


Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1332
Author(s):  
Hong Fan ◽  
Wu Du ◽  
Abdelghani Dahou ◽  
Ahmed A. Ewees ◽  
Dalia Yousri ◽  
...  

Social media has become an essential facet of modern society, wherein people share their opinions on a wide variety of topics. Social media is quickly becoming indispensable for a majority of people, and many cases of social media addiction have been documented. Social media platforms such as Twitter have demonstrated over the years the value they provide, such as connecting people from all over the world with different backgrounds. However, they have also shown harmful side effects that can have serious consequences. One such harmful side effect of social media is the immense toxicity that can be found in various discussions. The word toxic has become synonymous with online hate speech, internet trolling, and sometimes outrage culture. In this study, we build an efficient model to detect and classify toxicity in social media from user-generated content using the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT). The BERT pre-trained model and three of its variants has been fine-tuned on a well-known labeled toxic comment dataset, Kaggle public dataset (Toxic Comment Classification Challenge). Moreover, we test the proposed models with two datasets collected from Twitter from two different periods to detect toxicity in user-generated content (tweets) using hashtages belonging to the UK Brexit. The results showed that the proposed model can efficiently classify and analyze toxic tweets.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 597-612
Author(s):  
Daniel Trottier

This article offers an exploratory account of press coverage of digitally mediated vigilantism. It considers how the UK press renders these events visible in a sustained and meaningful way. News reports and editorials add visibility to these events, and also make them more tangible when integrating content from social media platforms. In doing so, this coverage directs attention to a range of social actors, who may be perceived as responsible for these kinds of developments. In considering how other social actors are presented in relation to digital vigilantism, this study focusses on press accounts of those either initiating or being targeted by online denunciations, and also on a broader and often amorphous range of spectators to such events, often referred to as ‘internet mobs’. Relatedly, this article explores how specific practices related to digital vigilantism such as denunciation are expressed in press coverage, as well as coverage of motivations by the public to either participate or facilitate such practices. Reflecting on how the press represent mediated denunciation will illustrate not only how tabloids and broadsheets frame such practices, but also how they take advantage of connective and data-generating affordances associated with social platforms.


Author(s):  
Judy O'Connell

Technology and social media platforms are driving an unprecedented reorganization of the learning environment in and beyond schools around the world. Technology provides us leadership challenges, and at the same time offers opportunities for communication and learning through technology channels to support professional development. School librarians and teacher librarians are often working as the sole information practitioner in their school, and need to stay in touch with others beyond their own school to develop their personal professional capacity to lead within their school. The Australian Teacher Librarian Network aims to make a difference, and supports school library staff in Australia and around the world to build professional networks and personal learning connections, offering an open and free exchange of ideas, strategies and resources to build collegiality. This ongoing professional conversation through online and social media channels is an important way to connect, communicate and collaborate in building a vibrant future for school librarians.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengyan Zhu ◽  
Runxi Zeng ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Richard Evans ◽  
Rongrong He

BACKGROUND Social media has become the most popular communication tool used by Chinese citizens, including expectant mothers. An increasing number of women have adopted various forms of social media channels, such as interactive websites, instant messaging, and mobile apps, to solve problems and obtain answers to queries during pregnancy. Although the use of the internet by pregnant women has been studied extensively worldwide, limited research exists that explores the changing social media usage habits in China, where the 1 child policy ended in 2015. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to (1) present the status quo of pregnancy-related information seeking and sharing via social media among Chinese expectant mothers, (2) reveal the impact of social media usage, and (3) shed light on pregnancy-related health services delivered via social media channels. METHODS A qualitative approach was employed to examine social media usage and its consequences on pregnant women. A total of 20 women who had conceived and were at various stages of pregnancy were interviewed from July 20 to August 10, 2017. Thematic analysis was conducted on the collected data to identify patterns in usage. RESULTS Overall, 80% (16/20) of participants were aged in their 20s (mean 28.5 years [SD 4.3]). All had used social media for pregnancy-related purposes. For the seeking behavior, 18 codes were merged into 4 themes, namely, gravida, fetus, delivery, and the postpartum period; whereas for sharing behaviors, 10 codes were merged into 4 themes, namely, gravida, fetus, delivery, and caretaker. Lurking, small group sharing, bad news avoidance, and cross-checking were identified as the preferred patterns for using social media. Overall, 95% (19/20) of participants reported a positive mental impact from using social media during their pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS It is indisputable that social media has played an increasingly important role in supporting expectant mothers in China. The specific seeking and sharing patterns identified in this study indicate that the general quality of pregnancy-related information on social media, as well as Chinese culture toward pregnancy, is improving. The new themes that merge in pregnancy-related social media use represent a shift toward safe pregnancy and the promotion of a more enjoyable pregnancy. Future prenatal care should provide further information on services related to being comfortable during pregnancy and reducing the inequality of social media–based services caused by the digital divide.


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