Article type
Abstract
Background:
Topical Steroid Withdrawal Syndrome (TSWS) is a condition which is contested within the medical and dermatological communities, but which has seen a rapid growth of awareness online among a growing patient community. Few systematic reviews or evidence and gap maps (EGMs) include social media and blog posts because these are considered poor quality evidence. However, due to the explosion of online content, it was necessary to search social media and blog sites as well as academic literature for an evidence map.
Objectives:
To devise a systematic search method that captured relevant social media posts and blogposts as well as academic literature on Topical Steroid Withdrawal that was replicable.
Method:
Medline, Embase and CINAHL were searched for academic literature.
Blog posts were sought on Google by combining ‘topical steroid withdrawal’ or ‘topical steroid addiction’ with the word ‘blogs’. A site-specific Google search was carried out to search the blog platforms Medium, Wordpress and Blogspot. Sites dedicated to TSWS were also searched for blogposts and links to blogs.
Instagram was searched using #TopicalSteroidWithdrawal. Relevant posts under the subreddit Topical Steroid Withdrawal (r/TS_withdrawal) were identified on Reddit. Searches were carried out in February 2023 and were restricted to the most recent 100 posts.
Dates of posts, URLs and text from individual posts were copied and pasted into an Excel spreadsheet for screening by two researchers.
Results
Difficulties encountered and overcome were as follows: 1. A vast amount of social media content on this topic. 2. No easy, unbiased way of searching for subject matter on social media and blog sites. 3. Capturing the data from social media sites and blogs to screen for inclusion. 4. Documenting the searches and recording the results.
Conclusion
This project has led to the development of a systematic method of searching social media and blogging sites. We will present our method of searching social media and blog sites as an adjunct to traditional systematic review searching.
Statement regarding public involvement:
One of the authors is a public representative with lived experience of TSWS and advised us on search terms, sources, contacts and relevant organisations.
Topical Steroid Withdrawal Syndrome (TSWS) is a condition which is contested within the medical and dermatological communities, but which has seen a rapid growth of awareness online among a growing patient community. Few systematic reviews or evidence and gap maps (EGMs) include social media and blog posts because these are considered poor quality evidence. However, due to the explosion of online content, it was necessary to search social media and blog sites as well as academic literature for an evidence map.
Objectives:
To devise a systematic search method that captured relevant social media posts and blogposts as well as academic literature on Topical Steroid Withdrawal that was replicable.
Method:
Medline, Embase and CINAHL were searched for academic literature.
Blog posts were sought on Google by combining ‘topical steroid withdrawal’ or ‘topical steroid addiction’ with the word ‘blogs’. A site-specific Google search was carried out to search the blog platforms Medium, Wordpress and Blogspot. Sites dedicated to TSWS were also searched for blogposts and links to blogs.
Instagram was searched using #TopicalSteroidWithdrawal. Relevant posts under the subreddit Topical Steroid Withdrawal (r/TS_withdrawal) were identified on Reddit. Searches were carried out in February 2023 and were restricted to the most recent 100 posts.
Dates of posts, URLs and text from individual posts were copied and pasted into an Excel spreadsheet for screening by two researchers.
Results
Difficulties encountered and overcome were as follows: 1. A vast amount of social media content on this topic. 2. No easy, unbiased way of searching for subject matter on social media and blog sites. 3. Capturing the data from social media sites and blogs to screen for inclusion. 4. Documenting the searches and recording the results.
Conclusion
This project has led to the development of a systematic method of searching social media and blogging sites. We will present our method of searching social media and blog sites as an adjunct to traditional systematic review searching.
Statement regarding public involvement:
One of the authors is a public representative with lived experience of TSWS and advised us on search terms, sources, contacts and relevant organisations.