Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jul 8, 2024
Open Peer Review Period: Jul 8, 2024 - Sep 2, 2024
Date Accepted: Dec 18, 2024
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Colorectal Cancer Racial Equity Post Volume, Content, and Exposure: An Observational Study Using X (formerly Twitter) Data
ABSTRACT
Background:
Racial inequity in health outcomes, especially in colorectal cancer (CRC), is among the most pressing issues in cancer communication. However, few studies have focused on the availability and potential reach of racial health equity content on social media.
Objective:
To examine the volume and content of, as well as exposure to, CRC racial health equity tweets from CRC equity disseminator accounts on Twitter (or X), defined as accounts that disseminate information related to racial equity concerning CRC outcomes.
Methods:
We identified Twitter accounts that posted CRC tweets between 2019 and 2021 and followed at least two CRC racial equity organization accounts as CRC equity disseminators. We analyzed the volume and content of racial equity related CRC tweets from these equity-disseminator accounts overall and by account types (experts vs. non-experts) and ascertained which types of accounts did the best job of exposing their followers to CRC racial equity content.
Results:
Only 5.8% of unique tweets from 798 CRC equity disseminators mentioned racially and ethnically minoritized groups. Of these tweets, most (57%) noted outcome disparities, but specific information about CRC symptoms (1.0%) and screening procedures (14.0%) were rare. Of the equity-information disseminators, expert accounts were more likely than non-experts to send CRC equity tweets. Broker accounts, or those with a significant portion of their followers subscribing to them as unique sources of equity content, were those that disseminated equity information most widely to community that would otherwise not learn about this topic.
Conclusions:
The analysis highlighted the disparate roles of expert and broker accounts in diffusing information with important implications for addressing cancer in racially minoritized groups in CRC. Public health practitioners should encourage CRC equity disseminators on social media to describe symptoms and screening procedures/benefits, and increase the reach of such content on social media.
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Copyright
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