Abstract DPOC-005: #OVARIANCANCER: USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO FACILITATE HEALTH COMMUNICATION

Abstract

Bioethics & Humanities Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among women. Women with a personal 2014). Anyone with an internet connection is invited to create, exchange, and consume usergenerated content, transforming passive consumers into content producers with increasing frequency (Keim & Noji 2011; Arigo et al., 2018). Today, over 72% of adult internet users go online for health information (Volkman et al., 2014; Fox & Duggan, 2013). This trend of seeking and consuming health information over social media is slated to increase along with growing mobile device ownership (PEW Research, 2018C). Social media users feel that the internet is a valuable source for health information, and often query their health concerns over social networking sites inhabited by people with shared health experiences (Duggan et al., 2015; Hong et al., 2012). Many of these individuals use the internet to address their health concerns and even self-diagnose before contacting their health care provider (