How to Optimize Health Messages About Cancer on Facebook: Mixed-Methods Study

Abstract

BackgroundIncidence rate of cancer is increasing worldwide, with longer life expectancy being one of the main causes. Yet, between 30% and 50% of cancer cases are preventable, and early detection contributes to a better prognosis. This makes health communication strategies essential. Facebook, the world’s most used social networking site in 2017 and 2018, can be a useful tool for disseminating powerful messages on health promotion, prevention, and early detection.ObjectiveWe aimed to (1) offer ways of optimizing health messages about cancer on Facebook, focusing on topics, such as risk factors, prevention, treatment, early diagnosis, and cure, and (2) investigate which aspects of these messages generate greater engagement.MethodsTo verify what generates greater engagement in topics related to cancer on Facebook, we analyzed 16 Brazilian pages with the main theme of cancer. We performed a manual analysis of texts, content, and engagement rates. Finally, we developed a software program to operationalize the analysis of Facebook posts. The tool we devised aims to automate the analysis of any Facebook page with cancer as the main theme.ResultsWe analyzed 712 posts over a 1-month period. We divided the posts into the following 8 categories: “Testimonies or real-life stories,” “Solidarity,” “Anniversaries,” “Science and health,” “Events,” “Institutional,” “Risk factors,” and “Beauty.” The pages were also organized into groups according to the type of profile to which they belonged (ie, hospitals or foundations, informative, nongovernmental organizations, and personal pages).The results showed that the categories generating greater engagement in Brazil were not those with the highest percentage of cancer-related content. For instance, in the “Informative” group the “Testimonies or real-life stories” category generated an engagement of 79.5%. However, only 9.5% (25/261) of the content within the relevant time period dealt with such topics. Another example concerns the category “Science and health.” Despite being the one with the highest number of posts (129/261, 49.4%), it scored 5th in terms of engagement. This investigation served as the basis for the development of a tool designed to automate the analysis of Facebook pages. The list of categories and keywords generated by this analysis was employed to feed the system, which was then able to categorize posts appearing on a Facebook page. We tested the system on 163 posts and only 34 were classified incorrectly, which amounts to a 20.8% error rate (79.2% accuracy).ConclusionsThe analysis we conducted by categorizing posts and calculating engagement rates shows that the potential of Facebook pages is often underutilized. This occurs because the categories that generate the greatest engagement are often not those most frequently used. The software developed in this research may help administrators of cancer-related pages analyze their posts more easily and increase public interest as a result.

Misinformation on social networks during the novel coronavirus pandemic: a quali-quantitative case study of Brazil

“…The stories were classified into seven content categories. Some categories are similar to other studies that analysed discourses in social networks [ 39 , 40 ]. We can observe that almost half of the stories (47%) are classified as “real-life”, that is, the focus is on everyday situations, or situations involving people.…”

Use of Facebook to Serve Information Needs of Persons with Diabetes amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The predominant themes on diabetes management, and diet seen in this project mirror findings of studies done even pre-pandemic where social media users would visit more posts on management, diabetes technology and nutrition than any other diabetes-related topic 9 , 10 or were more likely to engage in posts on FB groups/communities about different diabetes management strategies shared by patients. 11 Although no paper on FB use and diabetes care during the era of COVID-19 has been published so far to our knowledge, the high engagement rate seen particularly for PSEDM’s slide decks on diabetes selfmanagement (i.e., insulin uptitration, diarrhea and sick-day management, adjustment of insulin during exercise) may be a reflection of the current interest and/or information needs of Filipino social media users whether for themselves or for their relatives and friends during this pandemic.…”

“…Commenting is considered as the highest form of engagement because this action involves a process wherein a user reflects on a topic, formulates a text, and states it publicly on FB. 9 …”

When governments spread lies, the fight is against two viruses: A study on the novel coronavirus pandemic in Brazil

“…The stories were classified into seven content categories. Some categories are similar to other studies that analysed discourses in social networks (Biancovilli & Jurberg, 2018; Picanço et al, 2018). We can observe that almost half of the stories (47%) are classified as “real-life”, that is, the focus is on everyday situations, or situations involving people.…”