Reddit and Radiation Therapy: A Descriptive Analysis of Posts and Comments Over 7 Years by Patients and Health Care Professionals

Abstract

Purpose: Reddit is a social media platform that allows health care professionals (HPs) to anonymously interact with patients. We analyzed content about radiation therapy (RT) on Reddit. Methods and Materials: Reddit.com/r/cancer was queried with 20 search terms related to RT: IMRT, 3D-CRT, SBRT, EBRT, XRT, radiation, radiotherapy, RT, radio, rad, rads, gamma, gamma knife, gammaknife, cyber knife, cyberknife, cyber, brachytherapy, brachy, and cobalt. The search aimed to identify all posts discussing RT. A random sample of posts and their top 3 comments was selected to generate qualitative thematic codes per author consensus, which were used to characterize all posts and their top 3 voted comments. Posts were analyzed for time to first reply, mention of any specific RT modality, whether a self-identified HP responded, and time to first highly voted comment by an HP. Results: Exactly 190 posts about RT by 178 users were shared from February 2011 to May 2018, and 468 replies by 295 users were also analyzed. Twenty-nine of these users (9.8%) were HPs; however, 48 of 181 top comments were contributed by HPs compared with 45 of 288 non–top comments by HPs (odds ratio, 1.95; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.23-3.08; P < .004). The most common themes were treatment questions, chronology, and information; toxicities; and social support. The median time to first comment after posting was 64.0 minutes (95% CI, 53.0-82.0), and median time to first highly voted comment from an HP was 264.0 minutes (95% CI, 153.5-427.9; U = 4123.5; P < .0001 2-tailed). Fifty-three posts (27.9%) identified a specific RT modality, with proton therapy (7.4%), CyberKnife (5.3%), brachytherapy (4.2%), and whole brain radiation (4.2%) being the most common. Conclusions: HPs did not reply often to RT posts and generally took longer to do so, but their replies were valued by users. Common themes included treatment questions, chronology, and treatment; toxicities; and social support. Proton therapy received notable attention.