JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, disproportionately affecting young women. As many young adults use Twitter, it may be an effective channel to communicate skin cancer prevention information.

Objective:

The current study was conducted to assess the reach of the National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention’s 2018 Don’t Fry Day Twitter campaign, categorize the types of individuals/tweeters that engaged in the campaign, and identify themes of the tweets

Methods:

This study is a descriptive and content analysis of Twitter activity during the 2018 Don’t Fry Day campaign. The National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention tweeted about Don’t Fry Day and/or skin cancer prevention for 14 days in May, 2018. Twitter contributors were categorized into groups. The number of impressions and retweets were recorded. Content analysis was used to describe the text of the tweets.

Results:

A total of 1881 Twitter accounts, largely health professionals, used the Don’t Fry Day hashtag, creating over 45 million impressions. These accounts were grouped into nine categories (e.g., news/media, public figures). Content themes consisted of informative, minimally informative, and self-interest campaign promotion. Subthemes of the informative theme were sun safety, contextual, and epidemiologic information

Conclusions:

These analyses demonstrate the large potential reach of social media public health campaigns. However, limitations of such campaigns were also identified, for example, the relatively homogeneous groups actively engaged in the campaign. Research on the potential impact of social media on health behaviors and outcomes is an emerging field with potentially wide-reaching implications.