Twitter Conversations about Pancreatic Cancer by Health Care Providers and the General Public: Thematic Analysis

Udhayvir Singh Grewal; Arjun Gupta; Jamie Doggett; Emil Lou; Niraj J. Gusani; Anirban Maitra; Muhammad Shaalan Beg; Allyson J. Ocean

doi:10.2196/31388

Twitter Conversations about Pancreatic Cancer by Health Care Providers and the General Public: Thematic Analysis

Udhayvir Singh Grewal, Arjun Gupta, Jamie Doggett, Emil Lou, Niraj J. Gusani, Anirban Maitra, Muhammad Shaalan Beg, Allyson J. Ocean

Medicine - Hematology, Oncology, Transplant

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: There is a growing interest in the pattern of consumption of health-related information on social media platforms. Objective: We evaluated the content of discussions around pancreatic cancer on Twitter to identify subtopics of greatest interest to health care providers and the general public. Methods: We used an online analytical tool (Creation Pinpoint) to quantify Twitter mentions (tweets and retweets) related to pancreatic cancer between January 2018 and December 2019. Keywords, hashtags, word combinations, and phrases were used to identify mentions. Health care provider profiles were identified using machine learning and then verified by a human analyst. Remaining user profiles were classified as belonging to the general public. Data from conversations were stratified qualitatively into 5 domains: (1) prevention, (2) survivorship, (3) treatment, (4) research, and (5) policy. We compared the themes of conversations initiated by health care providers and the general public and analyzed the impact of the Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month and announcements by public figures of pancreatic cancer diagnoses on the overall volume of conversations. Results: Out of 1,258,028 mentions of pancreatic cancer, 313,668 unique mentions were classified into the 5 domains. We found that health care providers most commonly discussed pancreatic cancer research (10,640/27,031 mentions, 39.4%), while the general public most commonly discussed treatment (154,484/307,449 mentions, 50.2%). Health care providers were found to be more likely to initiate conversations related to research (odds ratio [OR] 1.75, 95% CI 1.70-1.79, P<.001) and prevention (OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.41-1.57, P<.001) whereas the general public took the lead in the domains of treatment (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.58-1.69, P<.001) and survivorship (OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.13-1.21, P<.001). Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month did not increase the number of mentions by health care providers in any of the 5 domains, but general public mentions increased temporarily in all domains except prevention and policy. Health care provider mentions did not increase with announcements by public figures of pancreatic cancer diagnoses. After Alex Trebek, host of the television show Jeopardy, received his diagnosis, general public mentions of survivorship increased, while Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s diagnosis increased conversations on treatment. Conclusions: Health care provider conversations on Twitter are not aligned with the general public. Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month temporarily increased general public conversations about treatment, research, and survivorship, but not prevention or policy. Future studies are needed to understand how conversations on social media platforms can be leveraged to increase health care awareness among the general public.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	e31388
Journal	JMIR Cancer
Volume	8
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.2196/31388
State	Published - Jan 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
JD is employed by Creation.co. EL reports a research grant from the American Association for Cancer Research (2019 AACR-Novocure Tumor-Treating Fields Research Grant, grant 1-60-62-LOU); past funding from the National Pancreas Foundation and the Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance; an honorarium and travel expenses for a research talk at GlaxoSmithKline (2016); honoraria and travel expenses for lab-based research talks and equipment for laboratory-based research from Novocure (2018-21); an unpaid consultancy for Nomocan Pharmaceuticals; membership on the scientific advisory board, Minnetronix, LLC (2018-present; unpaid); consultant and speaker honoraria, Boston Scientific US (2019); institutional principal investigator for clinical trials, sponsored by Celgene, Novocure, Intima Biosciences, and the NCI; and University of Minnesota membership in the Caris Life Sciences Precision Oncology Alliance (unpaid). AJO has served in a consulting or advisory role for Immunomedics, Inc, Celgene, Tyme Therapeutics, Array, Merck, BMS, ProStrakan, Novartis, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Genentech, and has served in the Speaker’s Bureau of Daiichi Sankyo. AM receives royalties for a pancreatic cancer biomarker test from Cosmos Wisdom Biotechnology; this financial relationship is managed and monitored by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Conflict of Interest Committee. AM is also listed as an inventor on a patent that has been licensed by Johns Hopkins University to Thrive Earlier Detection. AM received a grant from the Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Foundation. MSB has performed consulting for AstraZeneca, Merck, Ipsen, Foundation Medicine, Science 37, and Cancer Commons.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 JMIR Publications Inc.. All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Creation Pinpoint
Twitter
general public
health care providers
pancreatic cancer
social media
thematic analysis

PubMed: MeSH publication types

Journal Article

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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title = "Twitter Conversations about Pancreatic Cancer by Health Care Providers and the General Public: Thematic Analysis",

abstract = "Background: There is a growing interest in the pattern of consumption of health-related information on social media platforms. Objective: We evaluated the content of discussions around pancreatic cancer on Twitter to identify subtopics of greatest interest to health care providers and the general public. Methods: We used an online analytical tool (Creation Pinpoint) to quantify Twitter mentions (tweets and retweets) related to pancreatic cancer between January 2018 and December 2019. Keywords, hashtags, word combinations, and phrases were used to identify mentions. Health care provider profiles were identified using machine learning and then verified by a human analyst. Remaining user profiles were classified as belonging to the general public. Data from conversations were stratified qualitatively into 5 domains: (1) prevention, (2) survivorship, (3) treatment, (4) research, and (5) policy. We compared the themes of conversations initiated by health care providers and the general public and analyzed the impact of the Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month and announcements by public figures of pancreatic cancer diagnoses on the overall volume of conversations. Results: Out of 1,258,028 mentions of pancreatic cancer, 313,668 unique mentions were classified into the 5 domains. We found that health care providers most commonly discussed pancreatic cancer research (10,640/27,031 mentions, 39.4%), while the general public most commonly discussed treatment (154,484/307,449 mentions, 50.2%). Health care providers were found to be more likely to initiate conversations related to research (odds ratio [OR] 1.75, 95% CI 1.70-1.79, P<.001) and prevention (OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.41-1.57, P<.001) whereas the general public took the lead in the domains of treatment (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.58-1.69, P<.001) and survivorship (OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.13-1.21, P<.001). Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month did not increase the number of mentions by health care providers in any of the 5 domains, but general public mentions increased temporarily in all domains except prevention and policy. Health care provider mentions did not increase with announcements by public figures of pancreatic cancer diagnoses. After Alex Trebek, host of the television show Jeopardy, received his diagnosis, general public mentions of survivorship increased, while Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg{\textquoteright}s diagnosis increased conversations on treatment. Conclusions: Health care provider conversations on Twitter are not aligned with the general public. Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month temporarily increased general public conversations about treatment, research, and survivorship, but not prevention or policy. Future studies are needed to understand how conversations on social media platforms can be leveraged to increase health care awareness among the general public.",

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author = "Grewal, {Udhayvir Singh} and Arjun Gupta and Jamie Doggett and Emil Lou and Gusani, {Niraj J.} and Anirban Maitra and Beg, {Muhammad Shaalan} and Ocean, {Allyson J.}",

note = "Funding Information: JD is employed by Creation.co. EL reports a research grant from the American Association for Cancer Research (2019 AACR-Novocure Tumor-Treating Fields Research Grant, grant 1-60-62-LOU); past funding from the National Pancreas Foundation and the Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance; an honorarium and travel expenses for a research talk at GlaxoSmithKline (2016); honoraria and travel expenses for lab-based research talks and equipment for laboratory-based research from Novocure (2018-21); an unpaid consultancy for Nomocan Pharmaceuticals; membership on the scientific advisory board, Minnetronix, LLC (2018-present; unpaid); consultant and speaker honoraria, Boston Scientific US (2019); institutional principal investigator for clinical trials, sponsored by Celgene, Novocure, Intima Biosciences, and the NCI; and University of Minnesota membership in the Caris Life Sciences Precision Oncology Alliance (unpaid). AJO has served in a consulting or advisory role for Immunomedics, Inc, Celgene, Tyme Therapeutics, Array, Merck, BMS, ProStrakan, Novartis, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Genentech, and has served in the Speaker{\textquoteright}s Bureau of Daiichi Sankyo. AM receives royalties for a pancreatic cancer biomarker test from Cosmos Wisdom Biotechnology; this financial relationship is managed and monitored by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Conflict of Interest Committee. AM is also listed as an inventor on a patent that has been licensed by Johns Hopkins University to Thrive Earlier Detection. AM received a grant from the Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Foundation. MSB has performed consulting for AstraZeneca, Merck, Ipsen, Foundation Medicine, Science 37, and Cancer Commons. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 JMIR Publications Inc.. All Rights Reserved.",

year = "2022",

month = jan,

doi = "10.2196/31388",

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T1 - Twitter Conversations about Pancreatic Cancer by Health Care Providers and the General Public

T2 - Thematic Analysis

AU - Grewal, Udhayvir Singh

AU - Gupta, Arjun

AU - Doggett, Jamie

AU - Lou, Emil

AU - Gusani, Niraj J.

AU - Maitra, Anirban

AU - Beg, Muhammad Shaalan

AU - Ocean, Allyson J.

N1 - Funding Information: JD is employed by Creation.co. EL reports a research grant from the American Association for Cancer Research (2019 AACR-Novocure Tumor-Treating Fields Research Grant, grant 1-60-62-LOU); past funding from the National Pancreas Foundation and the Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance; an honorarium and travel expenses for a research talk at GlaxoSmithKline (2016); honoraria and travel expenses for lab-based research talks and equipment for laboratory-based research from Novocure (2018-21); an unpaid consultancy for Nomocan Pharmaceuticals; membership on the scientific advisory board, Minnetronix, LLC (2018-present; unpaid); consultant and speaker honoraria, Boston Scientific US (2019); institutional principal investigator for clinical trials, sponsored by Celgene, Novocure, Intima Biosciences, and the NCI; and University of Minnesota membership in the Caris Life Sciences Precision Oncology Alliance (unpaid). AJO has served in a consulting or advisory role for Immunomedics, Inc, Celgene, Tyme Therapeutics, Array, Merck, BMS, ProStrakan, Novartis, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Genentech, and has served in the Speaker’s Bureau of Daiichi Sankyo. AM receives royalties for a pancreatic cancer biomarker test from Cosmos Wisdom Biotechnology; this financial relationship is managed and monitored by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Conflict of Interest Committee. AM is also listed as an inventor on a patent that has been licensed by Johns Hopkins University to Thrive Earlier Detection. AM received a grant from the Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Foundation. MSB has performed consulting for AstraZeneca, Merck, Ipsen, Foundation Medicine, Science 37, and Cancer Commons. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 JMIR Publications Inc.. All Rights Reserved.

PY - 2022/1

Y1 - 2022/1

N2 - Background: There is a growing interest in the pattern of consumption of health-related information on social media platforms. Objective: We evaluated the content of discussions around pancreatic cancer on Twitter to identify subtopics of greatest interest to health care providers and the general public. Methods: We used an online analytical tool (Creation Pinpoint) to quantify Twitter mentions (tweets and retweets) related to pancreatic cancer between January 2018 and December 2019. Keywords, hashtags, word combinations, and phrases were used to identify mentions. Health care provider profiles were identified using machine learning and then verified by a human analyst. Remaining user profiles were classified as belonging to the general public. Data from conversations were stratified qualitatively into 5 domains: (1) prevention, (2) survivorship, (3) treatment, (4) research, and (5) policy. We compared the themes of conversations initiated by health care providers and the general public and analyzed the impact of the Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month and announcements by public figures of pancreatic cancer diagnoses on the overall volume of conversations. Results: Out of 1,258,028 mentions of pancreatic cancer, 313,668 unique mentions were classified into the 5 domains. We found that health care providers most commonly discussed pancreatic cancer research (10,640/27,031 mentions, 39.4%), while the general public most commonly discussed treatment (154,484/307,449 mentions, 50.2%). Health care providers were found to be more likely to initiate conversations related to research (odds ratio [OR] 1.75, 95% CI 1.70-1.79, P<.001) and prevention (OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.41-1.57, P<.001) whereas the general public took the lead in the domains of treatment (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.58-1.69, P<.001) and survivorship (OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.13-1.21, P<.001). Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month did not increase the number of mentions by health care providers in any of the 5 domains, but general public mentions increased temporarily in all domains except prevention and policy. Health care provider mentions did not increase with announcements by public figures of pancreatic cancer diagnoses. After Alex Trebek, host of the television show Jeopardy, received his diagnosis, general public mentions of survivorship increased, while Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s diagnosis increased conversations on treatment. Conclusions: Health care provider conversations on Twitter are not aligned with the general public. Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month temporarily increased general public conversations about treatment, research, and survivorship, but not prevention or policy. Future studies are needed to understand how conversations on social media platforms can be leveraged to increase health care awareness among the general public.

AB - Background: There is a growing interest in the pattern of consumption of health-related information on social media platforms. Objective: We evaluated the content of discussions around pancreatic cancer on Twitter to identify subtopics of greatest interest to health care providers and the general public. Methods: We used an online analytical tool (Creation Pinpoint) to quantify Twitter mentions (tweets and retweets) related to pancreatic cancer between January 2018 and December 2019. Keywords, hashtags, word combinations, and phrases were used to identify mentions. Health care provider profiles were identified using machine learning and then verified by a human analyst. Remaining user profiles were classified as belonging to the general public. Data from conversations were stratified qualitatively into 5 domains: (1) prevention, (2) survivorship, (3) treatment, (4) research, and (5) policy. We compared the themes of conversations initiated by health care providers and the general public and analyzed the impact of the Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month and announcements by public figures of pancreatic cancer diagnoses on the overall volume of conversations. Results: Out of 1,258,028 mentions of pancreatic cancer, 313,668 unique mentions were classified into the 5 domains. We found that health care providers most commonly discussed pancreatic cancer research (10,640/27,031 mentions, 39.4%), while the general public most commonly discussed treatment (154,484/307,449 mentions, 50.2%). Health care providers were found to be more likely to initiate conversations related to research (odds ratio [OR] 1.75, 95% CI 1.70-1.79, P<.001) and prevention (OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.41-1.57, P<.001) whereas the general public took the lead in the domains of treatment (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.58-1.69, P<.001) and survivorship (OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.13-1.21, P<.001). Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month did not increase the number of mentions by health care providers in any of the 5 domains, but general public mentions increased temporarily in all domains except prevention and policy. Health care provider mentions did not increase with announcements by public figures of pancreatic cancer diagnoses. After Alex Trebek, host of the television show Jeopardy, received his diagnosis, general public mentions of survivorship increased, while Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s diagnosis increased conversations on treatment. Conclusions: Health care provider conversations on Twitter are not aligned with the general public. Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month temporarily increased general public conversations about treatment, research, and survivorship, but not prevention or policy. Future studies are needed to understand how conversations on social media platforms can be leveraged to increase health care awareness among the general public.

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KW - health care providers

KW - pancreatic cancer

KW - social media

KW - thematic analysis

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Twitter Conversations about Pancreatic Cancer by Health Care Providers and the General Public: Thematic Analysis

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

PubMed: MeSH publication types

UN SDGs

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