Use of Social Media in Breast Cancer Awareness: GCC Countries’ Experience

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is the highest incident cancer among women in the world today as well as in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Improving the public awareness is significant in decreasing the overall morbidity and mortality of breast cancer. Social media brings a new dimension to healthcare as it offers a medium to communicate to be used by the public, patients, and health professionals to communicate health-related issues with the possibility of potentially improving health outcomes. According the Arab Social Media Report 2017 , the GCC countries largely dominate the top five spots in terms of penetration rates of key social media platforms among their populations, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Social media platforms are now frequently used on a large adoption rate by the public to address health-related issues especially in GCC countries. Compared with the rest of the Arab region, the Gulf countries largely have more balanced age breakdowns of young users who are under 30 and those who are over 30 years old, indicating the maturity of usage across age groups in society. Aim: This paper aims to provide an overview of the available evidence concerning the use of social media platforms in breast cancer awareness campaigns in GCC. Methods: A literature search was conducted using PubMed and Google Scholar databases for articles published between 2010 and March 2018. Several keywords have been used. Search was limited to articles in English and Arabic describing the use of social media platforms in breast cancer awareness campaigns in any of the GCC countries. Results: More than 500 studies have been identified in the initial search. Fifteen articles have been deemed eligible. The majority are discussing the importance of using media (mass and social) as the main source of breast cancer information, however, a multilevel intervention should be considered as many interventions should be used to create culturally appropriate breast cancer awareness campaigns in the GCC countries. Conclusion: Apparently, media have been used to raise breast cancer awareness to promote breast cancer screening programs including self-exam and mammogram, benefits of early detection, and modifiable risk factors. However, social media should not be viewed as a solution to the complexities of behavior change and improved health outcomes; instead, use of social media in health promotion should be valued for its potential to engage with audiences for enhanced communication and improved capacity to promote programs, products, and services. The use of various social media platforms is variable across age, educational, and socioeconomic groups; therefore, breast cancer awareness campaigns utilizing social media should be tailored according to the target group, however public communication in the GCC still considered as a significant challenge due to the cultural diversity and language barriers.

Knowledge and Practice Concerning Breast Cancer Risk Factors and Screening among Females in UAE

“…Regarding the source of information about breast cancer, social media platforms are predominant over other sources. This ratio aligned with Mansour et al study results concerning the role of social media in breast cancer awareness in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) area, which revealed that social media raised breast cancer awareness and promoted breast cancer screening programs (Mansour et al, 2018). While healthcare providers as a source of information showed a higher percentage than older studies in this field (Rahman et al, 2019).…”

Assessing the Knowledge of Environmental Risk Factors for Cancer among the UAE Population: A Pilot Study

“…We found that our study population favored being educated about health and prevention via the media. A study on the use of social media to raise awareness about breast cancer suggested that social media is a preferable method for raising breast cancer awareness [51]. Having mentioned this, the employment of the media should be tailored to the age group, level of education, language, and cultural barriers.…”

"Clicks, likes, shares and comments" a systematic review of breast cancer screening discourse in social media

“…As social media use varies by age, education and socioeconomic status, breast cancer screening social media communication should be tailored to the target population. [44]…”