Duong Huong Thien, Hopfer Suellen
Department of Health, Society, & Behavior, Program in Public Health, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States.
JMIR Form Res. 2023 Feb 15;7:e35601. doi: 10.2196/35601.
Families use social media group chats to connect with each other about daily life and to share information. Although cancer is not a frequent topic of conversation in family settings, the adoption of mobile technology in the family context presents a novel opportunity to promote cancer prevention information. To the best of our knowledge, few studies have used private social media group chats to promote cancer prevention information to family members.
In this formative study, we investigated how family group chat platforms can be leveraged to encourage colorectal cancer screening, human papillomavirus vaccination, and cervical cancer screening among intergenerational Vietnamese American families. This study aimed to cocreate a family-based communication intervention for introducing cancer screening information in family group chats. We sought to understand family members' motivations for using group chats, family dynamics and conversation patterns, and group chat experiences and cultural norms for interacting with family members.
Overall, 20 audio-recorded and semistructured interviews were conducted with young Vietnamese adults. The study was conducted between August and October 2018. Participants were Vietnamese Americans; aged between 18 and 44 years; living in Orange County, California; had an existing family group chat; and expressed an interest in becoming family health advocates. Data were analyzed using a framework analysis.
In total, 13 (65%) of the 20 young adults reported having >1 group chat with their immediate and extended family. Preventive health was not a typical topic of family conversations, but food, family announcements, personal updates, humorous videos or photos, and current events were. Young adults expressed openness to initiating conversations with family members about cancer prevention; however, they also raised concerns that may influence family members' receptivity to the messages. Themes that could potentially impact family members' willingness to accept cancer prevention messages included family status and hierarchy, gender dynamics, relational closeness in the family, and source trust and credibility. These considerations may impact whether families will be open to receiving cancer screening information and acting on it. The participants also mentioned practical considerations for intervention and message design, which included the Vietnamese cultural conversation etiquette of hỏi thăm, respect for a physician's recommendation, prevention versus symptom orientation, the family health advocate's bilingual capacity, and the busy lives of family members. In response to exemplar messages, participants mentioned that they preferred to personalize template messages to accommodate conversational norms in their family group chats.
The findings of this study inform the development of a social media intervention for increasing preventive cancer screening in Vietnamese American families.
家庭使用社交媒体群聊来相互交流日常生活并分享信息。尽管癌症并非家庭环境中常见的话题，但在家庭环境中采用移动技术为推广癌症预防信息提供了一个新机会。据我们所知，很少有研究利用私人社交媒体群聊向家庭成员推广癌症预防信息。
在这项形成性研究中，我们调查了如何利用家庭群聊平台鼓励越南裔美国家庭的代际成员进行结直肠癌筛查、人乳头瘤病毒疫苗接种和宫颈癌筛查。本研究旨在共同创建一种基于家庭的沟通干预措施，以便在家庭群聊中引入癌症筛查信息。我们试图了解家庭成员使用群聊的动机、家庭动态和对话模式，以及群聊体验和与家庭成员互动的文化规范。
总共对20名越南年轻成年人进行了录音和半结构化访谈。该研究于2018年8月至10月进行。参与者为越南裔美国人；年龄在18至44岁之间；居住在加利福尼亚州奥兰治县；有现有的家庭群聊；并表示有兴趣成为家庭健康倡导者。使用框架分析法对数据进行分析。
20名年轻成年人中，共有13人（65%）报告与直系和大家庭成员有超过1个群聊。预防性健康并非家庭对话的典型话题，而食物、家庭通知、个人近况、幽默视频或照片以及时事是典型话题。年轻成年人表示愿意与家庭成员展开关于癌症预防的对话；然而，他们也提出了一些可能影响家庭成员对这些信息接受度的担忧。可能影响家庭成员接受癌症预防信息意愿的主题包括家庭地位和等级制度、性别动态、家庭中的关系亲密度以及信息来源的信任度和可信度。这些因素可能会影响家庭是否愿意接受癌症筛查信息并据此采取行动。参与者还提到了干预和信息设计的实际考虑因素，包括越南文化中的问候询问礼仪、对医生建议的尊重、预防与症状导向、家庭健康倡导者的双语能力以及家庭成员忙碌的生活。针对示例信息，参与者表示他们倾向于将模板信息个性化，以适应家庭群聊中的对话规范。
本研究结果为开发一种社交媒体干预措施以增加越南裔美国家庭的预防性癌症筛查提供了参考。
