ArticlePsycho-oncology2025
Medical Mistrust in Online Cancer Communities: A Large-Scale Analysis Across 10 Cancer Entities.
Article in Psycho-oncology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Why do people trust (or mistrust) health organizations? A systematic review.International journal for equity in health · 2026Pooled it
- Perceived Discrimination and Healthcare System Trust as Barriers to Survivorship Care in Endometrial Cancer.Cancer medicine · 2026Article
- A Closer Look: Crafting Your Community Advisory Board (CAB): Important Don'ts When Developing a CAB as Part of Your Research.Psycho-oncology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMedical mistrust is a barrier to optimal cancer care. Analyzing social media posts where patients voice mistrust provides an opportunity to understand its variations and derive potential ways to address medical mistrust.
aimsTo (1) identify the frequency of mistrust expression in cancer-related Reddit posts, (2) characterize mistrusted entities and reasons for mistrust, and (3) identify emotional tone associated with mistrust.
methods101,963 posts from 10 entity-specific cancer communities on the social media platform Reddit made before September 30, 2024, were analyzed using a Large Language Model (LLM, "gpt-4o-mini") in this cross-sectional study. Performance of the LLM was compared to human raters. Categories for mistrusted entities and reasons for mistrust were developed inductively by human evaluators. Subsequently, posts were assigned to these different categories by the LLM.
resultsOf n = 101,963 posts analyzed, 19,159 posts (18.8%) were categorized as expressing mistrust, predominantly directed at healthcare professionals (n = 14,221, 74.2%). Most common reasons for mistrust were "disregard for patient concerns" (n = 8176, 42.7%), "perceived incompetence of medical management" (n = 4871, 25.4%), and problems in "communication" (n = 4060, 21.2%). Mistrust posts commonly contained "worried" (n = 5933, 31.0%), "concerned" (n = 3623, 18.9%) and "frustrated" (n = 3046, 15.9%) tones.
conclusionsExpression of medical mistrust is prevalent in social media and is predominantly directed at healthcare professionals. Mistrust is frequently associated with dismissal of patients' symptoms or concerns, a perceived lack of thoroughness in clinical management and communication difficulties, suggesting these as key actionable areas to address medical mistrust in clinical practice.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.