TY - JOUR
T1 - “More than a song and dance”
T2 - Exploration of patient perspectives and educational quality of gynecologic cancer content on TikTok
AU - Morton, Molly
AU - Haight, Paulina J.
AU - Khadraoui, Wafa
AU - Backes, Floor
AU - Bixel, Kristin
AU - O'Malley, David M.
AU - Nagel, Christa
AU - Chambers, Laura M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2023/8
Y1 - 2023/8
N2 - Objective: To investigate themes, quality, and reliability of gynecologic cancer-related content on the social media application TikTok. Methods: TikTok was systematically searched for the 100 most popular posts for ovarian cancer (OC), endometrial cancer (EC), cervical cancer (CC), vulvar cancer (VC), and gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) in August 2022. Data was collected for demographics, tone, and themes. Educational videos were rated for quality and reliability utilizing the modified DISCERN scale. Relationships between content demographics, disease sites, and themes were assessed. Results: As of August 2022, the top five hashtags for each gynecologic cancer on TikTok had 466.7 million views. 430 of the top 500 posts were eligible for inclusion (OC: n = 86, CC: n = 93, EC: n = 98, GTD: n = 63, VC: n = 90). The majority of creators (n = 323, 75.1%) were White, 33 (7.7%) were Black, 20 (4.6%) were Asian/Pacific Islander (API), 10 (2.3%) were South Asian, 20 (4.7%) were Hispanic/Latino/a, 24 (5.5%) were unable to determine. Eleven central themes were identified, with significant differences when analyzed by disease site and race. The median DISCERN score for all posts was 1.0, indicating poor educational quality and reliability. When compared by race, South Asian/API posters received the highest scores (3, IQR 2.5) versus Black (2: IQR 3), Hispanic/Latino/a (2: IQR 0), and White posters (1, IQR 2) (p = 0.0013). Conclusion(s): Gynecologic cancer-related content on TikTok is of poor educational quality, and racial disparities in gynecologic cancer extend to social media. Opportunities exist to create more diverse content to support racial and cultural experiences in gynecologic cancer treatment.
AB - Objective: To investigate themes, quality, and reliability of gynecologic cancer-related content on the social media application TikTok. Methods: TikTok was systematically searched for the 100 most popular posts for ovarian cancer (OC), endometrial cancer (EC), cervical cancer (CC), vulvar cancer (VC), and gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) in August 2022. Data was collected for demographics, tone, and themes. Educational videos were rated for quality and reliability utilizing the modified DISCERN scale. Relationships between content demographics, disease sites, and themes were assessed. Results: As of August 2022, the top five hashtags for each gynecologic cancer on TikTok had 466.7 million views. 430 of the top 500 posts were eligible for inclusion (OC: n = 86, CC: n = 93, EC: n = 98, GTD: n = 63, VC: n = 90). The majority of creators (n = 323, 75.1%) were White, 33 (7.7%) were Black, 20 (4.6%) were Asian/Pacific Islander (API), 10 (2.3%) were South Asian, 20 (4.7%) were Hispanic/Latino/a, 24 (5.5%) were unable to determine. Eleven central themes were identified, with significant differences when analyzed by disease site and race. The median DISCERN score for all posts was 1.0, indicating poor educational quality and reliability. When compared by race, South Asian/API posters received the highest scores (3, IQR 2.5) versus Black (2: IQR 3), Hispanic/Latino/a (2: IQR 0), and White posters (1, IQR 2) (p = 0.0013). Conclusion(s): Gynecologic cancer-related content on TikTok is of poor educational quality, and racial disparities in gynecologic cancer extend to social media. Opportunities exist to create more diverse content to support racial and cultural experiences in gynecologic cancer treatment.
KW - Educational content
KW - Gynecologic cancer
KW - Patient experience
KW - Social media
KW - TikTok
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85161845738&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ygyno.2023.06.004
DO - 10.1016/j.ygyno.2023.06.004
M3 - Article
C2 - 37329872
AN - SCOPUS:85161845738
SN - 0090-8258
VL - 175
SP - 81
EP - 87
JO - Gynecologic Oncology
JF - Gynecologic Oncology
ER -