Purpose: Social media, especially Twitter®, is becoming increasingly important for medical topics. Systematic analyses of the content of these tweets are rare. To date, no analysis of the reception of antibiotic/non-operative-treated acute appendicitis on Twitter® has been performed.
Methods: Tweets with the content "appendicitis," "appendix," and "appendectomy" from December 31, 2010, to September 27, 2017, were recorded. Further analysis was performed by secondary search strings related to antibiotic-treated acute appendicitis. Subsequent systematic analysis of content, author groups, and followers was performed.
Results: Out of 22,962 analyzed tweets, 3400 were applicable on all search strings, and 349 dealt meaningfully with antibiotic-treated acute appendicitis. 47.9% of the tweets were published by individuals, of which non-surgical consultants comprised the largest group. The tweets published by organizations and institutions were mostly published by publishing platforms. Half of the tweets were neutral, with an overall positive trend for antibiotic-treated acute appendicitis, but significant differences were noted among the authors. The number of followers showed a wide range, with an considerable numeric impact.
Conclusion: The scientific discussion of antibiotic-treated acute appendicitis is reflected on Twitter®. Overall, antibiotic-treated acute appendicitis is presented in a neutral and differentiated manner on Twitter®, but this picture is exclusively derived from assessment of a variety of tweets. Individual tweets are partially undifferentiated in content and misrepresent antibiotic-treated acute appendicitis. In addition, content and intentions are significantly author dependent. Scientists should therefore use Twitter® to make sound medical information heard. If this policy is not implemented, the importance of inadequate and incorrect information transfer is indirectly increased.
Keywords: Antibiotics; Appendicitis; Social media; Twitter®.