Association of Online Social Media Use and Quality of Life in Breast-cancer patients
Keywords:
online social media, quality of life, breast cancerAbstract
Breast cancer is the leading cause of death and disability among Thai women. Screening for
new cases is important in reducing the burden of breast cancer. The challenge for health
authorities is to increase screening, early-stage treatment of breast cancers, patient follow-up, and
palliative care. Nowadays, online social media play a very important role among breast-cancer
patients. Different kinds of online social media include the Line app, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter,
and Pinterest. Online social media are web-based, so that breast-cancer patients can potentially
access information about cancer treatment, share ideas about cancer prevention, and interact with
other patients and health organizations. Our literature review revealed that patients’ use of online
social media improved their quality of life. However, very little research has been found that has
studied the association between online social media use and quality of life among breast-cancer
patients. This study aimed to determine the association between online social media use and
quality of life among breast-cancer patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted among
breast-cancer patients attending the Ubon Ratchathani Cancer Hospital in Ubon Ratchathani
Province during the period April to December 2019. Data were collected by questionnaires
comprising socio-demographic characteristics, online social media usage behavior, and an
instrument to measure health-related quality of life (EQ - 5D - 5L). A total of 182 breast-cancer
patients participated in the study; 47.8% had ever used online social media and 52.2% had never
used them. Breast-cancer patients with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) problem(s) used
online social media more than patients without HRQoL problems (OR = 2.29, P = 0.013), patients
with visual analog scale (VAS) problems used online social media more than others (OR = 2.74,
P = 0.012). The median VAS among breast-cancer patients who used online social media was
higher than the nonusers (P<0.001). In conclusion, the results of this study indicated that the use
of online social media improved the quality of life of breast-cancer patients. Therefore, the
relevant authorities should provide information about breast cancer through online social media,
which are popular among breast-cancer patients, and would be beneficial for them.
References
Ferlay J, Ervik M, Lam F, Colombet M, Mery L,Piñeros M, et al. Global Cancer Observatory:
Cancer Tomorrow. Lyon, France: International Agency for Research on Cancer. Available from:
https://gco.iarc.fr/tomorrow. Accessed Feb 13,2020.
Imsamran W, Supattagorn P, Chiawiriyabunya I,Namthaisong K, Pattatang A, Wongsena M, et al.
Cancer in Thailand IX, 2013-2015. Bangkok. Available from: http://www.nci.go.th/th/index1.html. Accessed
Feb 13, 2020.
Sun Y-S, Zhao Z, Yang Z-N, Xu F, Lu H-J, Zhu Z-Y, et al. Risk factors and preventions of breast cancer.
Int J Biol Sci 2017;13:1387-97.
Nounou MI, ElAmrawy F, Ahmed N, Abdelraouf K,Goda S, Syed-Sha-Qhattal H. Breast cancer:
conventional diagnosis and treatment modalities and recent patents and technologies. J Breast Cancer
;9:17-34.
Tiezzi MFBdM, de Andrade JM, Romão APMS, Tiezzi DG, Lerri MR, Carrara HAH, et al. Quality of life in
women with breast cancer treated with or without chemotherapy. Cancer Nurs 2017;40:108-16.
Prochaska JJ, Coughlin SS, Lyons EJ. Social media and mobile technology for cancer prevention and
treatment. Am Soc Clin Oncol Educ Book 2017;37:128-37.
Mikal JP, Grande SW, Beckstrand MJ. Codifying online social support for breast cancer patients:
retrospective qualitative assessment. J Med Internet Res 2019;21:1-8.
International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Committed to connecting the world. Statistics. Individuals using
the internet, 2005-2019. Available from: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspx.
Accessed Feb 13, 2020.
สำนักงานพัฒนาธุรกรรมทางอิเล็กทรอนิกส์. ข้อมูลสถิติ Statistic e-Transactions. รายงานข้อมูลประจำปีของ
สพธอ. 2562. Available from: https://www.etda.or.th/content/etda-reveals-thailand-internet-user-profile-
html. Accessed Feb 13, 2020.
Thackeray R, Burton SH, Giraud-Carrier C, Rollins S,Draper CR. Using twitter for breast cancer prevention:
an analysis of breast cancer awareness month. BMC Cancer 2013;13:508.
Rajagopalan MS, Khanna VK, Leiter Y, Stott M,Showalter TN, Dicker AP, et al. Patient-oriented
cancer information on the internet: a comparison of wikipedia and a professionally maintained database. J Oncol Pract 2011;7:319-23.
Fernández-Luque L, Bau T. Health and social media:perfect storm of information. Healthcare informatics
Res 2015;21:67-73.
A Katabalo DM MR, Mwita S, Marwa K, Masalu N.Awareness of chemotherapy side effects and
attitude towards chemotherapy use among cancer patients attending oncology clinic at Bugando
medical centre, in Mwanza, Notrhern Tanzania.J Drug Deli & Ther 2018;8:448-54.
ความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างการใช้สื่อออนไลน์และคุณภาพชีวิตของผู้ป่ วยมะเร็งเต้านม สายรุ้ง ประกอบจิตร และคณะ 27
Pattanaphesaj J. Health-related quality of life measure(EQ-5D-5L): measurement property testing and its
preference-based score in Thai population. Bangkok:Mahidol University; 2014.
นุชจริน ยินดี และอรอนงค์ วลีขจรเลิศ. การประเมินอรรถประโยชน์ของผู้ป่ วยมะเร็งลำไส้ใหญ่และลำไส้ตรง
ระยะลุกลาม ณ โรงพยาบาลสุรินทร์. วารสารเภสัชกรรมไทย 2562;11:137-45.
Wallner LP, Martinez KA, Li Y, Jagsi R, Janz NK, Katz SJ,et al. Use of online communication by patients with
newly diagnosed breast cancer during the treatment decision process. JAMA Oncol 2016; 2: 1654-6.
Sugawara Y, Narimatsu H, Hozawa A, Shao L, Otani K,Fukao A. Cancer patients on Twitter: a novel patient
community on social media. BMC Res Notes 2012;5:1-9.
Lee KL, Janz NK, Zikmund-Fisher BJ, Jagsi R,Wallner LP, Kurian AW, et al. What factors influence
women's perceptions of their systemic recurrence risk after breast cancer treatment? Med Decis
Making 2018;38:95-106.
Attai DJ, Cowher MS, Al-Hamadani M, Schoger JM,Staley AC, Landercasper J. Twitter social media is
an effective tool for breast cancer patient educationand support: patient-reported outcomes by survey.J Med Internet Res 2015;17:188-97.
Drewes C, Kirkovits T, Schiltz D, Schinkoethe T,Haidinger R, Goldmann-Posch U, et al. EHealth
acceptance and new media preferences for therapy assistance among breast cancer patients. JMIR
Cancer 2016;2:13-22.
Cherrez Ojeda I, Vanegas E, Torres M, Calderón JC,Calero E, Cherrez A, et al. Ecuadorian cancer
patients’ preference for information and communication technologies: cross-sectional study. J Med Internet
Res 2018;20:1-4.
Tsuya A, Sugawara Y, Tanaka A, Narimatsu H. Docancer patients tweet? Examining the twitter use
of cancer patients in Japan. J Med Internet Res 2014; 16:137-45.
Tapi Nzali MD, Bringay S, Lavergne C, Mollevi C,Opitz T. What patients can tell us: topic analysis
for social media on breast cancer. JMIR Med Inform 2017;5:23-39.
Mohammadzadeh, Z., Davoodi, S., Ghazisaeidi, M.Online social networks-opportunities for empowering
cancer patients. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev 2016;17:933-6.
Lozano-Lozano M, Cantarero-Villanueva I, Martin-Martin L, Galiano-Castillo N, Sanchez MJ, Fernández-
Lao C, et al. A Mobile system to improve quality of life via energy balance in breast cancer survivors
(BENECA mHealth): prospective test-Retest quasiexperimental feasibility study. JMIR m Health u Health 2019;7:413-8.
Ghenai A, Mejova Y. Fake cures: User-centric modeling of health misinformation in social media.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. 2018;2:581-820. Available from: https://
arxiv.org/abs/1809.00557. Accessed Feb 25, 2020.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
บทความทีตีพิมพ์ในวารสารโรคมะเร็งนี้ถือว่าเป็นลิขสิทธิ์ของมูลนิธิสถาบันมะเร็งแห่งชาติ และผลงานวิชาการหรือวิจัยของคณะผู้เขียน ไม่ใช่ความคิดเห็นของบรรณาธิการหรือผู้จัดทํา
