Health-related social media use and preferences of adolescent and young adult cancer patients for virtual programming

• Published in: Supportive care in cancer 2020-10, Vol.28 (10), p.4789-4801
• Main Authors: Aggarwal, Reenika, Hueniken, Katrina, Eng, Lawson, Kassirian, Shayan, Geist, Ilana, Balaratnam, Karmugi, Liang, Mindy, Paulo, Chelsea B., Geist, Arielle, Rao, Pryangka, Mitchell, Laura, Magony, Alexander, Jones, Jennifer M., Grover, Samir C., Brown, M. Catherine, Bender, Jackie, Xu, Wei, Liu, Geoffrey, Gupta, Abha A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age Factors; Cancer; Cancer patients; Care and treatment; Cross-Sectional Studies; Exercise; Female; Humans; Information Seeking Behavior; Internet; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Neoplasms - diagnosis; Neoplasms - psychology; Neoplasms - therapy; Nursing; Nursing Research; Oncology; Original Article; Pain Medicine; Patient Education as Topic - methods; Patient Education as Topic - statistics & numerical data; Patients; Preferences; Rehabilitation Medicine; Social media; Social Media - statistics & numerical data; Social networks; Survivor; Teenagers; Web sites; Young Adult; Young adults; Youth
• ISSN: 0941-4355; 1433-7339
• DOI: 10.1007/s00520-019-05265-3

Purpose Adolescents and young adults (AYA) with cancer are increasingly using the internet and social media (SM) for cancer-related information. AYA face specific challenges and thus require tailored resources that meet their needs. We describe the internet and SM preferences of AYA related to their cancer information seeking behaviors and their preferences for a future resource compared to middle-aged adults (MAA). Methods Cancer patients completed a cross-sectional survey related to their internet and SM usage, cancer information, and preferences for future resources. Chi-square tests were used to compare AYA and MAA. Results The mean (±SD) age in the AYA group was 30±6.1 years ( n  = 129); in MAA 55±6.7 years ( n  = 157). In general, AYA preferred internet sites over SM platforms for cancer-related information and prefer a website platform over a SM platform for a new resource. Few AYA were aware of hospital-based AYA-specific resources. MAA were less likely to use SM compared with AYA (13% vs 4%, p  = 0.01); however, websites and SM platforms that were used were similar between the 2 groups. Participants endorsed having already researched certain topics – yet, these were also those desired in a new resource. Compared to MAA, AYA sought more information on diet/nutrition, physical activity, exercise/fitness, fertility, sexual health, and body image (all p values