Do Cancer Patients Tweet? Examining the Twitter Use of Cancer Patients in Japan

Atsushi Tsuya · Yuya Sugawara · Hiroto Narimatsu

94 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Medical Internet Research

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Social Media in Health Education Health Literacy and Information Accessibility Mental Health via Writing

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Twitter is an interactive, real-time media that could prove useful in health care. Tweets from cancer patients could offer insight into the needs of cancer patients. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to understand cancer patients' social media usage and gain insight into patient needs. METHODS: A search was conducted of every publicly available user profile on Twitter in Japan for references to the following: breast cancer, leukemia, colon cancer, rectal cancer, colorectal cancer, uterine cancer, cervical cancer, stomach cancer, lung cancer, and ovarian cancer. We then used an application programming interface and a data mining method to conduct a detailed analysis of the tweets from cancer patients. RESULTS: Twitter user profiles included references to breast cancer (n=313), leukemia (n=158), uterine or cervical cancer (n=134), lung cancer (n=87), colon cancer (n=64), and stomach cancer (n=44). A co-occurrence network is seen for all of these cancers, and each cancer has a unique network conformation. Keywords included words about diagnosis, symptoms, and treatments for almost all cancers. Words related to social activities were extracted for breast cancer. Words related to vaccination and support from public insurance were extracted for uterine or cervical cancer. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that cancer patients share information about their underlying disease, including diagnosis, symptoms, and treatments, via Twitter. This information could prove useful to health care providers.

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References

2014Social Media: A Review and Tutorial of Applications in Medicine and Health Care 2013Methodological Considerations in Analyzing Twitter Data 2012Cancer patients on Twitter: a novel patient community on social media 2012A Content Analysis of Chronic Diseases Social Groups on Facebook and Twitter 2011Peer review: Trial by Twitter

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