FRI0694 Twitter: a new platform for public health campaigns: systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis as examples

Abstract

Background:Social media is widely used these days and has the capacity to distribute information widely and rapidly to a large audience. Twitter is a popular social network site with hundreds of millions of users and over 500 million Tweets being sent each day. Patients commonly receive information about their condition from social media sites including Twitter. Patient education plays an important role in the management of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The role of Twitter and its present application in SLE and RA patients’ education was analyzed.Methods:Twitter advanced search function was used to retrieve all tweets (English language only) containing the words systemic lupus erythematosus, lupus and/or SLE, as well as rheumatoid arthritis over one week (October 23, 2017 to October 29, 2017). Contents of collected tweets were analyzed, and tweets were categorized into 2 groups: general public (editorial/blogging, social/conversational, and advertisement tweets) and professional sources (tweets from physicians, rheumatologists, including hyperlinks to academic publications and websites of professional organizations, and educational tweets by awareness groups).Results:Over the one-week timeframe, a total of 618 tweets mentioned lupus, systemic lupus erythematosus and/or SLE, and a total of 178 tweets mentioned rheumatoid arthritis. In the respective disease groups, tweets assigned to the professional sources category were 32% of the total tweets for SLE (200/618) and 51% for RA (92/178). Tweets sent by physicians constituted 2.6% (21/796) and by rheumatologists 1 % (8/796) of the total tweets. Tweets with links to reliable sources (defined as hyperlinks to academic publications, professional organizations and awareness groups) were 23% of the total tweets. Finally, educational tweets by patient advocate groups were 10% of the total tweets.Conclusions:Twitter has the capability of engaging a wide audience in a topic-specific conversation. Thus, it can be used as cost-effective platform for public health campaigns and to distribute evidence-based knowledge to educate patients. At this time, disease-specific search revealed a smaller percentage of content is employed for public health education and awareness. Links to reliable sources were 23% of the total tweets, indicating shortage of contribution from healthcare organizations and professionals. Majority of tweets were in the general public category (including tweets by patients) indicating an audience waiting for professional input. Health advocates should use Twitter to construct public health campaigns. Further research should be conducted to examine approaches to target specific Twitter users that engage in SLE and RA conversations.Disclosure of Interest:None declared