Department of Public Health, Brooks College of Health, University of North Florida, 1 UNF Drive, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA.
Health and Kinesiology, University of Utah, 201 Presidents Circle, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Feb 22;19(5):2507. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19052507.
Skin cancer rates are rising in the United States, yet screening rates remain low. Meanwhile, social media has evolved to become a primary source of health information, with 40% of daily users of Pinterest reporting the platform as a "go-to" source. The objective of this research paper is to examine how skin cancer screenings were portrayed on Pinterest. Using the search terms "skin cancer screening" and "skin cancer exam", researchers sampled every fifth pin to collect 274 relevant pins. Two researchers coded the pins, and interrater agreement was established at 94%. The results showed that twenty-two percent of the sample depicted skin cancer screening in a negative way, yet 41.5% noted that early detection leads to better outcomes. The pins were geared toward younger, white women with minimal depiction of people of color. Few pins included comprehensive information about skin cancer risk factors, importance of routine self-screenings, or what to expect with a medical provider. Fifty-eight percent of pins included links to personal blogs. In conclusion, social media has become a powerful source of health information, yet much of the posted information is incomplete. These findings present public health experts with an opportunity to disseminate more comprehensive skin cancer screening information on social media.
美国的皮肤癌发病率正在上升，但筛查率仍然很低。与此同时，社交媒体已经发展成为主要的健康信息来源，40%的每日使用 Pinterest 的用户将该平台作为“首选”来源。本研究论文的目的是探讨皮肤癌筛查在 Pinterest 上是如何呈现的。研究人员使用了“皮肤癌筛查”和“皮肤癌检查”这两个搜索词，对每第五个引脚进行抽样，共收集了 274 个相关引脚。两位研究人员对引脚进行了编码，并且内部一致性达到了 94%。结果表明，样本中有 22%以负面的方式描述了皮肤癌筛查，而 41.5%则指出早期检测会带来更好的结果。这些引脚针对的是年轻的白人女性，几乎没有描绘有色人种。很少有引脚包含有关皮肤癌风险因素、常规自我筛查重要性或与医疗服务提供者预期的综合信息。58%的引脚包含指向个人博客的链接。总之，社交媒体已经成为健康信息的强大来源，但发布的信息大多不完整。这些发现为公共卫生专家提供了一个在社交媒体上传播更全面的皮肤癌筛查信息的机会。
