Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Feb 26, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 27, 2025 - Apr 24, 2025
Date Accepted: Aug 6, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Quality and Misinformation of Cancer-Related Information on Social Media: A Systematic Review of Literature (2014–2023)
ABSTRACT
Background:
Social media has become a vital source of cancer-related health information, offering patients, caregivers, and the public a platform for sharing knowledge and experiences. However, concerns regarding the quality, accuracy, and potential misinformation of cancer information on social media persist.
Objective:
This study systematically reviewed literature published between 2014 and 2023 evaluating the quality of cancer-related information on social media. It aimed to identify common characteristics of these studies, assess patterns in information quality across platforms and cancer types, and explore factors associated with study outcomes.
Methods:
This systematic review searched PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Medline. Studies were included if they analyzed cancer-related social media content and assessed information quality using standardized tools (e.g., the DISCERN tool). Extracted data included study characteristics, social media platform, cancer types, and quality assessment methods. Meta-analysis and ordinal logistic regression analysis were performed to pool findings from multiple studies.
Results:
A total of 75 studies were included, covering various a range of social media platforms, such as YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. Findings indicated that video-based platforms, particularly YouTube and TikTok, were the most studied but also contained misinformation. Overall, 27% of social media cancer-related content included misinformation, with common false claims regarding alternative treatments and unproven therapies. Studies assessing rare cancers reported lower information quality compared to those focusing on common cancers. Additionally, content from medical professionals was of higher quality but less engaging than user-generated content.
Conclusions:
While social media serves as an essential platform for cancer-related health information, concerns remain about misinformation, completeness, and actionability. Future research should prioritize improving information accuracy, leveraging AI for content verification, and promoting authoritative sources to enhance public health outcomes.
Citation
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.