title: Transmissibility of the Campaign for Colorectal Cancer Awareness in Korea Among Twitter Users.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The Korean Society of Coloproctology holds its annual colorectal awareness month every September. This study analyzed the users and the contents of Korean tweets regarding colorectal cancer and estimated the transmissibility of the awareness campaign among Twitter users.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective data collection was employed to accumulate Korean tweets containing the keywords "colorectal cancer," "colorectal cancer awareness campaign," "gold ribbon," and/or "love handle," from August 1 to September 30, 2014. Twitter users and contents were analyzed, and the credibility of information-sharing tweets throughout the study period was evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 10,387 tweets shared by 1,452 unique users were analyzed. As for users, 57.8% were individuals whereas 5.8% were organizations/communities; spambots accounted for a considerable percentage (36.4%). As for content, most tweets were spam (n = 8,736, 84.1%), repetitively advertising unverified commercial folk remedies, followed by tweets that shared information (n = 1,304, 12.6%) and non-information (n = 347, 3.3%). In the credibility assessment, only 80.6% of the information-sharing tweets were medically correct. After spam tweets had been excluded, a significant increase was seen in the percentage of information-sharing tweets (77.1% to 81.1%, P = 0.045) during the awareness campaign month.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most Korean tweets regarding colorectal cancer during the study months were commercial spam tweets; informative public tweets accounted for an extremely small percentage. The transmissibility of the awareness campaign among Twitter users was questionable at best. To expand the reach of credible medical information on colorectal cancer, public health institutions and organizations must pay greater attention to social media.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Keun Chul
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Heung-Kwon
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.affiliation: Department of Transdisciplinary Studies, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Gibeom
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Transdisciplinary Studies, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: SoHyun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Transdisciplinary Studies, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Bongwon
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.affiliation: Health Promotion Center, Department of Family Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Woo Kyung
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Jin Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyuk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Myung Jo
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Il
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Il Tae
authors.initials: IT
authors.lastname: Son
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Duck-Woo
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Bum
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Kang
keywords: Awareness campaign; Colorectal neoplasms; Medical information; Social media; Twitter