When Engagement Leads to Action: Understanding the Impact of Cancer (Mis)information among Latino/a Facebook Users

Latinos/as – the largest minority group in the U.S. – are avid Facebook users, making this an opportune tool to educate on the uptake of cancer prevention and screening behaviors. However, there is a dearth in scholarship exploring how Latinos/as engage with and act upon health content encountered on social media, which may be influenced by cultural values. This qualitatively-driven, mixed-methods study explores how Latinos/as engage with and act upon cancer prevention and screening information (CPSI) on Facebook. During one-on-one, in-depth interviews, participants (n = 20) logged onto their Facebook account alongside the researcher and discussed cancer-related posts they engaged with during the past 12 months. Interview questions included the reasons for engagement, and whether engagement triggered further action. Interviews were analyzed thematically. In parallel, a content analysis of the CPSI posts identified during the interviews was conducted. The majority of CPSI posts participants engaged with contained food-related content and visual imagery. Engagement was most common when individuals had personal relationships to the poster, when posts included videos/images, and when posts contained content promoting the curative properties of popular Latin American foods. Engagement often led to information-seeking and sharing, discussing content with others, and/or changing health behaviors. Findings highlight the importance of adequately contextualizing how cultural values influence the ways in which Latinos/as engage with and act upon CPSI on Facebook, which may lead individuals to bypass evidence-based procedures. Multi-pronged efforts are necessary to adequately leverage social media to empower Latinos/as to partake in behaviors that effectively reduce cancer health disparities.