Quality of nutrition information for breast cancer: A mixed-methods analysis of online information.

OBJECTIVES: As breast cancer incidence increases globally, the demand for information related to patients' health, well-being, exercise, and nutrition post-diagnosis also increases. Online platforms are now a source of information for patients with cancer and their relatives globally. However, the quality of the information provided on these platforms and the extent of involvement among different types of information providers remain debatable. METHOD: This mixed-method study analysed Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Google, and ChatGPT for cancer nutrition content and collected the top 10 results, corresponding to 5 search terms selected by the research team. Post-diagnosis cancer nutrition claims were extracted from the collected content; claims were labelled based on the type of content providers (health professionals, personal accounts, or groups and organisations) and evaluated against the current evidence, including nutrition guidelines for patients with cancer, systematic reviews, and published human studies by a panel of experts. RESULTS: One hundred and fifty-one cancer nutrition claims were extracted from 387 unique pieces of content, collected across the online platforms. Overall, less than 13% of the extracted nutrition claims were supported by reliable evidence. The least evidence-supported information about cancer nutrition was on X, TikTok, and Pinterest. While the most accurate platforms were Google (33.33%) and ChatGPT (30%), the quality of information was relatively poor. "Health professionals" contributed the smallest number of nutrition claims overall; however, the accuracy of shared information was not significantly different among the content creators. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of online nutrition information for breast cancer patients is low quality and not supported by current guidelines. Non-evidence-based nutrition claims have been observed across all platforms and shared by all types of content providers. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: To combat misleading health information, education campaigns are needed to improve media literacy and sufficient resources allocated to disseminate evidence-based information through online platforms.