Abstract
1.Assess Instagram posts related to #hospice and #palliative care.2.Identify trends in #Hospice and #Palliativecare Instagram postings.3.Compare trends between #hospice and #palliative care. Image-sharing social media platforms such as Instagram have grown in popularity and are rapidly becoming a media for personal, business and health-related information sharing. Instagram has over 1 billion active monthly users, with 64% of users ranging from 18 to 34 years old. The content of Instagram images of palliative care (PC) and hospice have not been investigated. To assess Instagram posts related to #hospice and #palliative care, illustrating general population knowledge and opinions of hospice and palliative care and comparing trends. Instagram-public data was retrieved for 30 days (images, video, metadata) for the two hashtags containing PC and hospice. Images were screened; duplicates removed and excluded non-English content. A customized coding scheme to determine major content themes and images was developed. Themes were characterized by user (hospice/PC/personal); post type (picture, video); description (selfie, infographic), content (advertisement, fundraiser, education, animals); purpose (personal, work, business, motivational and healthcare-related). Content was evaluated to explore trends comparing hospice vs. PC. #hospice (n=2916) and #palliativecare (n=1075), 389 posts were included after screening; 292 #Hospice and 97 #palliativecare images selected for analysis. Most images were pictures of others and most images were posted by individual users. Common content themes included fundraising (26.99%; 12.5% PC vs. 31.85% hospice; p=0.002), advertisement 24.68%, p=NS), family/friends (14.65%; 28.13% PC vs. 10.27% hospice; p<0.001), education (11.05%; p=NS), and animals (8.23%; 2.08% PC vs. 10.27% hospice; p=0.038). If the user had a hospice/PC background, they will be more likely to post educational materials (p=0.0388). Instagram #hospice and #palliativecare are available and widely used. #hospice is used more often in general and when identifying common categories such as fundraising, posting about the story of loved one or pets. Hospice and PC organizations have started to use posts as a means of education. Future studies should analyzed how Instagram can be utilized as a means for educating the population, worldwide promotion and empowering patients and caregivers.
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