Popular contraception videos on TikTok: An assessment of content topics.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to explore the contraception content topics on the highly popular social media platform TikTok to understand this influential information source patients may bring into birth control counseling visits. STUDY DESIGN: Utilizing a snapshot method, we collected the 100 most popular TikTok English-language videos for each of the eight contraception-specific search terms. We abstracted video content topics addressed and creator attributes. Two independent abstractors coded each video with high agreement, with a third coder adjudicating discrepancies. RESULTS: The final data set included 700 unique videos, with a total of 1.18 billion views, 131 million likes, 1.5 million comments, and 4.1 million shares. In these videos, the most common topics addressed were patient experience (n = 365, 52.1%) and logistics of use (n = 351, 50.1%). Health care professionals created only 19.3% of videos (n = 135), but these videos accounted for a larger portion of the total video views (41.3%). Health care professionals largely made educational videos (92.6%) compared to 22.5% of videos coded as educational videos when made by perceived non-health care professionals. A small number of prolific video creators developed the majority of videos made by health care professionals, with 91 (67.4%) made by six TikTok creators. CONCLUSIONS: TikTok contains highly accessible contraception content, which garners high viewership, especially when created by health care providers. Clinicians should be aware of TikTok's potential to influence patients prior to contraceptive counseling visits and recognize this platform as a public health instrument to disseminate contraceptive information to a key demographic. IMPLICATIONS: Few previous studies have examined the presence and popularity of contraception content topics on TikTok; little is known about the health content on this highly popular platform. Providers should be aware of the contraceptive topics on TikTok for understanding both patient perceptions and the potential for health education through this media.

Contraceptive content shared on social media: an analysis of Twitter.

BACKGROUND: Information on social media may affect peoples' contraceptive decision making. We performed an exploratory analysis of contraceptive content on Twitter (recently renamed X), a popular social media platform. METHODS: We selected a random subset of 1% of publicly available, English-language tweets related to reversible, prescription contraceptive methods posted between January 2014 and December 2019. We oversampled tweets for the contraceptive patch to ensure at least 200 tweets per method. To create the codebook, we identified common themes specific to tweet content topics, tweet sources, and tweets soliciting information or providing advice. All posts were coded by two team members, and differences were adjudicated by a third reviewer. Descriptive analyses were reported with accompanying qualitative findings. RESULTS: During the study period, 457,369 tweets about reversible contraceptive methods were published, with a random sample of 4,434 tweets used for final analysis. Tweets most frequently discussed contraceptive method decision-making (26.7%) and side effects (20.5%), particularly for long-acting reversible contraceptive methods and the depot medroxyprogesterone acetate shot. Tweets about logistics of use or adherence were common for short-acting reversible contraceptives. Tweets were frequently posted by contraceptive consumers (50.6%). A small proportion of tweets explicitly requested information (6.2%) or provided advice (4.2%). CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians should be aware that individuals are exposed to information through Twitter that may affect contraceptive perceptions and decision making, particularly regarding long-acting reversible contraceptives. Social media is a valuable source for studying contraceptive beliefs missing in traditional health research and may be used by professionals to disseminate accurate contraceptive information.

The Angiosarcoma Project: enabling genomic and clinical discoveries in a rare cancer through patient-partnered research.

Despite rare cancers accounting for 25% of adult tumors1, they are difficult to study due to the low disease incidence and geographically dispersed patient populations, which has resulted in significant unmet clinical needs for patients with rare cancers. We assessed whether a patient-partnered research approach using online engagement can overcome these challenges, focusing on angiosarcoma, a sarcoma with an annual incidence of 300 cases in the United States. Here we describe the development of the Angiosarcoma Project (ASCproject), an initiative enabling US and Canadian patients to remotely share their clinical information and biospecimens for research. The project generates and publicly releases clinically annotated genomic data on tumor and germline specimens on an ongoing basis. Over 18 months, 338 patients registered for the ASCproject, which comprises a large proportion of all patients with angiosarcoma. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) of 47 tumors revealed recurrently mutated genes that included KDR, TP53, and PIK3CA. PIK3CA-activating mutations were observed predominantly in primary breast angiosarcoma, which suggested a therapeutic rationale. Angiosarcoma of the head, neck, face and scalp (HNFS) was associated with a high tumor mutation burden (TMB) and a dominant ultraviolet damage mutational signature, which suggested that for the subset of patients with angiosarcoma of HNFS, ultraviolet damage may be a causative factor and that immune checkpoint inhibition may be beneficial. Medical record review revealed that two patients with HNFS angiosarcoma had received off-label therapeutic use of antibody to the programmed death-1 protein (anti-PD-1) and had experienced exceptional responses, which highlights immune checkpoint inhibition as a therapeutic avenue for HNFS angiosarcoma. This patient-partnered approach has catalyzed an opportunity to discover the etiology and potential therapies for patients with angiosarcoma. Collectively, this proof-of-concept study demonstrates that empowering patients to directly participate in research can overcome barriers in rare diseases and can enable discoveries.