Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Cancer Control and Population Sciences, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
J Natl Cancer Inst. 2022 Jul 11;114(7):1036-1039. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djab141.
There are few data on the quality of cancer treatment information available on social media. Here, we quantify the accuracy of cancer treatment information on social media and its potential for harm. Two cancer experts reviewed 50 of the most popular social media articles on each of the 4 most common cancers. The proportion of misinformation and potential for harm were reported for all 200 articles and their association with the number of social media engagements using a 2-sample Wilcoxon rank-sum test. All statistical tests were 2-sided. Of 200 total articles, 32.5% (n = 65) contained misinformation and 30.5% (n = 61) contained harmful information. Among articles containing misinformation, 76.9% (50 of 65) contained harmful information. The median number of engagements for articles with misinformation was greater than factual articles (median [interquartile range] = 2300 [1200-4700] vs 1600 [819-4700], P = .05). The median number of engagements for articles with harmful information was statistically significantly greater than safe articles (median [interquartile range] = 2300 [1400-4700] vs 1500 [810-4700], P = .007).
社交媒体上有关癌症治疗信息的质量数据很少。在这里，我们定量评估了社交媒体上癌症治疗信息的准确性及其潜在危害。两位癌症专家分别对四种最常见癌症的每个癌症类型的 50 篇最受欢迎的社交媒体文章进行了评论。对所有 200 篇文章的错误信息比例和潜在危害进行了报告，并使用两样本 Wilcoxon 秩和检验分析了与社交媒体互动数量的相关性。所有统计检验均为双侧。在总共 200 篇文章中，有 32.5%（65 篇）包含错误信息，有 30.5%（61 篇）包含有害信息。在包含错误信息的文章中，有 76.9%（50 篇）包含有害信息。包含错误信息的文章的互动中位数大于真实文章（中位数[四分位距]为 2300[1200-4700]比 1600[819-4700]，P=0.05）。包含有害信息的文章的互动中位数与安全文章相比具有统计学意义上的显著差异（中位数[四分位距]为 2300[1400-4700]比 1500[810-4700]，P=0.007）。
