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Public Engagement with Lung Cancer Screening Information: Topic Modeling of Lung Cancer-Related Reddit Posts
Aditi Jaiswal1, Samia Amin2, Sayed M S Amin3
1Department of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
Current Oncology (Toronto, Ont.)
|October 28, 2025
Summary
Public engagement with lung cancer screening (LCS) on Reddit is low. Discussions focus on treatment and mental health, not early detection, indicating a need for improved awareness strategies.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Digital Health Communication
- Social Media Analysis
Background:
- Lung cancer screening (LCS) using low-dose computed tomography improves survival.
- Public engagement with LCS, especially in online health communities, is not well understood.
- Social media platforms are increasingly important for health communication.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the thematic landscape of lung cancer discussions on Reddit.
- To identify the extent of public engagement with lung cancer screening (LCS) on this platform.
- To uncover gaps in public awareness regarding LCS.
Main Methods:
- Collected 109,868 posts from six lung cancer subreddits (Jan 2019-Dec 2024) using Reddit API.
- Preprocessed data and analyzed 105,118 unique posts via Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling.
- Qualitatively reviewed and categorized emergent themes into treatment, mental health, smoking, and LCS.
Main Results:
- Mental health (71.82%) and treatment (16.84%) dominated discussions.
- Lung cancer screening (LCS) comprised only 3.04% of the discourse.
- While overall engagement increased from 2022, LCS posts remained consistently sparse.
Conclusions:
- Reddit users frequently discuss lung cancer treatment and mental health but rarely engage with LCS.
- A significant gap exists in public awareness and online discussion of LCS.
- Targeted public health strategies are needed to promote LCS awareness on social media.
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