An Examination of Patients and Caregivers on Reddit Navigating Brain Cancer: Content Analysis of the Brain Tumor Subreddit (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Many brain tumor patients commonly utilize online resources such as Reddit as avenues for self-management and support outside of the clinical setting. OBJECTIVE We aimed to examine trends from Reddit discussion treads on brain tumors to identify areas of need in patient care. METHODS We used a qualitative, descriptive design to understand patient and caregivers unmet and met needs. We analyzed the top 100 posts from the ‘braincancer’ subreddit to identify common themes. RESULTS The qualitative content analysis revealed three major topic areas: (1) harnessing hope; (2) moving through the grief process; and (3) expressing gratitude toward other Reddit users. Most of the authors of the posts were patients with brain tumors (n = 32; 36.4%) who used Reddit as a reflective journaling tool to process associated emotions of a challenging diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS This study shows the potential of Reddit to serve as unique group therapy platform for patients affected by brain tumors. Additionally, the results highlight the importance of recommending Reddit as a therapeutic virtual community. Our results highlight the support provided by the Reddit community members as a unique mechanism to assist cancer survivors and caregivers with the emotional processing of living with brain tumors.