Department of Palliative Care, Rehabilitation, and Integrative Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd, Unit 1414, Houston, TX, 77030, USA.
Department of Medicine Section of Geriatrics and Palliative Care, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
Support Care Cancer. 2024 Oct 1;32(10):696. doi: 10.1007/s00520-024-08882-9.
Social media is widely used but few studies have examined how patients with advanced cancer want their accounts managed after death. The objective of this study was to determine the proportion of our patients with advanced cancer who have discussed the post-mortem management of their social media accounts with their family or friends.
This was a cross-sectional survey in which patients with advanced cancer at an outpatient Supportive Care Clinic at a tertiary cancer center completed a novel survey on social media use that assessed patients' social media use practices, attitudes and preferences, and reactions to the survey.
Of 117 patients, 72 (61.5%) were women, and the mean age was 56.4 years old. We found that 24 (21%) of our patients have discussed their preferences for management of their social media accounts after death. Patients with a lower annual income were significantly more likely to report having such conversations (p = 0.0036). Completing the survey motivated 76 patients (67%) to discuss their social media accounts and 82 patients (71.3%) to explore how social media will be managed after their death. Half of our study participants reported social media as an important source of coping.
Few patients have had conversations on the management of their accounts after death, although more were interested in exploring their options further. More research is needed to examine the role of social media as a digital legacy and a coping tool for patients with advanced cancer.
社交媒体的使用非常广泛，但很少有研究探讨过晚期癌症患者希望在去世后如何管理其账户。本研究的目的是确定我们的晚期癌症患者中有多少人与其家人或朋友讨论过其社交媒体账户的死后管理。
这是一项横断面调查，在一家三级癌症中心的姑息治疗门诊诊所中，对晚期癌症患者进行了一项关于社交媒体使用的新型调查，该调查评估了患者的社交媒体使用习惯、态度和偏好，以及对调查的反应。
在 117 名患者中，72 名（61.5%）为女性，平均年龄为 56.4 岁。我们发现，24 名（21%）患者讨论过他们对死后管理其社交媒体账户的偏好。年收入较低的患者更有可能报告有此类对话（p=0.0036）。完成调查促使 76 名患者（67%）讨论了他们的社交媒体账户，82 名患者（71.3%）探讨了他们去世后如何管理社交媒体。我们的研究参与者中有一半人表示社交媒体是一种重要的应对方式。
尽管有更多的患者有兴趣进一步探讨其选择，但很少有患者讨论过其账户的死后管理。需要进一步研究社交媒体作为晚期癌症患者的数字遗产和应对工具的作用。
