Radiation risk from X-ray mammography: Communication and exchange of information through social media

Congress:

EuroSafe Imaging 2017

Poster Number:

ESI-0028

Type:

EuroSafe Imaging

Keywords:

Radiation safety, Radiation effects, Mammography, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, Breast, Action 12 - Information for and communication with patients, Action 13 - Stakeholder engagement and collaboration, Action 11 - Improved patient communication, Action 10 - Improved communication and collaboration of health professionals in radiation protection, Socio-economic issues, Education and training

Authors:

I. Seimenis, K. Chouchos, P. Prassopoulos

DOI:

10.1594/esi2017/ESI-0028

DOI-Link:

https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/esi2017/ESI-0028

Fig. 1: Results by User Type

Fig. 2: Results by Linked Source Type

Fig. 3: Results by Favourability

Fig. 4: Results by Informative Value

Background/Introduction

X-ray mammography screening involves repeated exposure to ionizing radiation and, therefore, is associated with a risk for radiogenic breast cancer [1]. Radiation-induced breast cancer incidence and mortality from x-ray mammography screening are impacted by many factors, such as dose variability from screening and resultant diagnostic work-up, initiation age, screening frequency and breast size [2]. It is well documented that the benefits of screening outweigh radiogenic breast cancer risk [2-5]. Nevertheless, annual screening of 100,000 women aged 40 to 74 years has been projected to induce,...

Description of activity and work performed

The current retrospective study included publicly accessible tweets, i.e. Twitter messages, in English with no geographic limitations. Using Twitter’s Advanced Search feature, a total of 288 tweets were collected for a two-year period, spanning from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2016. The top tweets for each month within the studied period were manually collected and processed. Two sets of keywords were used. The first search was performed for tweets containing both the terms “mammography” and “radiation” in any order of appearance, while a similar...

Conclusion and Recommendations

There is ongoing debate regarding x-ray mammography for breast cancer screening purposes. Twitter has been utilized for disseminating information on this topic. Researchers highlighted the potential role of Twitter for breast cancer prevention by analyzing data obtained during the breast cancer awareness month [10]. A recent study evaluated themes related to patients' experience in undergoing mammography, as expressed on Twitter [11], whilst another work investigated how users are sharing evidence and discussing current guidelines for breast cancer screening [12]. However, little work has been done...

Personal/Organisational information

Ioannis Seimenis, Professor of Medical Physics, Medical School, Democritus University of Thrace Konstantinos Chouchos, Medical Electronics Engineer, Medical School, Democritus University of Thrace Panos Prassopoulos, Professor of Radiology, Medical School, Democritus University of Thrace

References

1. Committee to Assess Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation and National Research Council. Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation: BEIR VII Phase 2. Washington, D.C: The National Academies Press; 2006. 2. Miglioretti DL, Lange J, van den Broek JJ, Lee CI, van Ravesteyn NT, Ritley D, Kerlikowske K, Fenton JJ, Melnikow J, de Koning HJ, Hubbard RA.Radiation-Induced Breast Cancer Incidence and Mortality From Digital Mammography Screening: A Modeling Study. Ann Intern Med. 16;164(4):205-14; 2016. 3. Hendrick...