International Journal of Preventive Medicine (Int J Prev Med)2008-780210102020020921572157ENDepartment of Public Health, William Paterson University, University Hall, Wayne, NJDepartment of Medical Education, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1 Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY20200119<p><span class="fontstyle0"><strong>Background</strong>: </span><span class="fontstyle2">Breast cancer has an impact not only on those who are diagnosed, but also on their social network, creating an even greater need for the availability of reliable information and support.<br /></span></p><p><span class="fontstyle0"><strong>Methods</strong>: </span><span class="fontstyle2">The purpose of this study was to document the content of posts on the highly popular social media platform, Instagram. Posts were garnered and analyzed from Instagram using the hashtag #breastcancer. Data were collected at three different points in time in 2018 and were then aggregated. </span></p><p><span class="fontstyle0"><strong>Results</strong>: </span><span class="fontstyle2">The most common attributes were highlighting an individual story (</span><span class="fontstyle3">n </span><span class="fontstyle2">= 76), discussing support for those with breast cancer (</span><span class="fontstyle3">n </span><span class="fontstyle2">= 75), discussing treatment (</span><span class="fontstyle3">n </span><span class="fontstyle2">= 55), or promoting an alternative treatment or product (</span><span class="fontstyle3">n </span><span class="fontstyle2">= 24). Posts that contained images of people were more likely highlight an individual story (</span><span class="fontstyle3">P </span><span class="fontstyle2">= 0.001) and discuss treatment (</span><span class="fontstyle3">P </span><span class="fontstyle2">= 0.046). </span></p><p><span class="fontstyle0"><strong>Conclusions</strong>: </span><span class="fontstyle2">Future research can focus on best practices for developing breast cancer‑related information on social media. </span></p><p><strong></strong><span class="fontstyle0" style="color: #00652e;"><strong>Keywords</strong>: </span><span class="fontstyle3">Breast cancer, Instagram, social media</span></p>http://ijpm.mui.ac.ir/index.php/ijpm/article/view/2157http://ijpm.mui.ac.ir/index.php/ijpm/article/download/2157/717717953