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Research

Look who’s talking now: Cancer in primary care on Twitter. An observational study

Kristi M Milley, Sophie A Chima, Kara-Lynne Cummings and Jon D Emery
BJGP Open 2021; 5 (1): bjgpopen20X101134. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpopen20X101134
Kristi M Milley
1 Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group, Centre for Cancer Research and Department of General Practice, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia
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  • For correspondence: kristi.milley@unimelb.edu.au
Sophie A Chima
1 Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group, Centre for Cancer Research and Department of General Practice, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia
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Kara-Lynne Cummings
1 Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group, Centre for Cancer Research and Department of General Practice, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia
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Jon D Emery
1 Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group, Centre for Cancer Research and Department of General Practice, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia
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    Figure 1. Key themes identified and representative tweets of each theme
  • Figure 2.
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    Figure 2. Emergent themes in cancer in primary care tweets by user type: consumers, media, healthcare professionals, and health organisations
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    Figure 3. Top three stories that generated the greatest engagement with Twitter users

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    Table 1. Summary of the type of user and frequency of users and tweets
    User typeUsers, n (%)Tweets, n (%)
    Consumer413 (25.6)457 (21.5)
    Health organisation354 (22.0)581 (27.3)
    Healthcare professional250 (15.5)297 (14.0)
    Media229 (14.2)350 (16.4)
    Other202 (12.5)258 (12.1)
    Unknown163 (10.2)186 (8.7)
    Total1611 (100)2129 (100)
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    Table 2. Summary of tweet origins by geographic location
    LocationTweets, n
    UK1078
    Unknown370
    US308
    Australia139
    Canada74
    Ireland33
    New Zealand12
    Spain11
    India, Nigeria, South Africa10
    Greece, Pakistan8
    Egypt6
    Belgium, France, Germany4
    Colombia, Indonesia, Japan3
    China, Italy, Nepal, Peru, Saudi Arabia2
    Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Israel, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mexico, Namibia, Norway, Oman, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, Uganda, Zimbabwe1
    • Rows with more than one country indicate those countries produced the same number of tweets.

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    Table 3. Summary of sentiment analysis scores by user type
    Sentiment scoreAverage score
    User type -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
    Consumer123184412019257173000–0.42
    HCP0007950131711892000.18
    Health organisation002164411727889249100–0.16
    Media003626711765981000–0.21
    Other000519461304262000–0.16
    Unknown005411351123170000–0.21
    • HCP = healthcare professional.

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Look who’s talking now: Cancer in primary care on Twitter. An observational study
Kristi M Milley, Sophie A Chima, Kara-Lynne Cummings, Jon D Emery
BJGP Open 2021; 5 (1): bjgpopen20X101134. DOI: 10.3399/bjgpopen20X101134

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Look who’s talking now: Cancer in primary care on Twitter. An observational study
Kristi M Milley, Sophie A Chima, Kara-Lynne Cummings, Jon D Emery
BJGP Open 2021; 5 (1): bjgpopen20X101134. DOI: 10.3399/bjgpopen20X101134
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Keywords

  • primary health care
  • neoplasms
  • social media
  • twitter
  • General practitioners
  • Cancer

More in this TOC Section

  • Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and treatment intensity in secondary prevention of patients with ischaemic heart disease in the primary care setting: a real-world data registry study
  • General practitioner characteristics and video use in out-of-hours primary care: a register-based study
  • The impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on primary care contact among vulnerable populations in England: a controlled interrupted time series study
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