HOW RELIABLE ARE THE MOST COMMONLY SHARED ASTHMA LINKS ON TWITTER?

Abstract

SESSION TITLE: Wednesday Abstract Posters SESSION TYPE: Original Investigation Posters PRESENTED ON: 10/23/2019 09:45 AM - 10:45 AM PURPOSE: Patients obtain a large amount of medical information online. However, much of this information may not be reliable or of high quality. Our goal was to assess the reliability and quality of links related to asthma. METHODS: The 50 most highly shared links on Twitter containing the hashtag #asthma in 2018 were examined for type of link, how often shared, and frequency of shares by stakeholder group (healthcare organizations, clinicians, non-healthcare individuals, and non-healthcare organizations). Quality and reliability of information on each site were assessed using DISCERN scores, HONCode criteria, and Asthma Content scores, collected independently by two investigators. RESULTS: In 2018, the top 50 links were shared 6009 times (median number of shares 92 per link, range 60-710 shares per link). Links most commonly (42%) led to general educational content while 24% of links led to research articles, 22% to promotional websites, and 12% to political websites. Most of the sites had low Asthma Content scores (median 3; 25-75% IQR 1-8; possible range 0-17). Only 34% of sites met HONCode criteria for high understandability, accessibility, and trustworthiness. Most of the websites (54%) had low quality information by DISCERN scores, while only 14% were assessed as high quality. General education links had higher Asthma Content scores than other links (P<0.005), although overall the scores were low for all types of links (median 7 (25-75% IQR 2-11) vs median 3 (25-75% IQR 0-4)). There were significant differences in which articles were more often shared by different stakeholder groups. Research article links were more likely to be shared by clinicians (OR 14.0; 95% CI 2.6-75.2), and had the highest HONCode scores (median 7 (25-75% IQR 5-7) vs median 5 (25-75% IQR 3-6); P=0.01). Promotional article links had the lowest HONCode scores (median 3 (25-75% IQR 2-4) vs median 6 (25-75% IQR 4-7); P=0.0004). HONCode, Asthma Content scores & overall DISCERN scores had high degrees of correlation. Links with high HONCode scores were more likely to be shared by clinicians, while links with high Asthma Content scores were more likely to be shared by healthcare organizations. Links with high overall DISCERN scores were more likely to contain general educational content. Links highly shared by individuals had lower DISCERN reliability scores, including several links with biased and potentially fraudulent content. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the most commonly shared links on Twitter using the hashtag #asthma scored poorly in terms of asthma content, quality and reliability. Higher quality links more frequently contained general educational information and were mostly shared by healthcare organizations and clinicians. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Highly shared links on social media are not the best source of information on medical topics. DISCLOSURES: No relevant relationships by Christopher Carroll, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Neha Dangayach, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Viren Kaul, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Jay Peters, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Kathleen Sala, source=Web Response shareholder relationship with HylaPharm Please note: $20001 - $100000 Added 06/14/2019 by Steven Simpson, source=Web Response, value=nothing, yet Consultant relationship with Aimmune Please note: $1001 - $5000 Added 03/01/2019 by David Stukus, source=Web Response, value=Consulting fee Consultant relationship with Before Brands Please note: $1001 - $5000 Added 03/01/2019 by David Stukus, source=Web Response, value=Consulting fee No relevant relationships by Tamas Szakmany, source=Web Response