Endocrine Abstracts

Background: September is celebrated as PCOS awareness month worldwide and is aimed at improving the lives of those with PCOS, promoting research, and strengthening advocacy efforts. While significant financial and human resources are invested in promotions during this month, to the best of our knowledge, there is no evidence to show the impact of this initiative. In our study, we evaluated the global digital impact of PCOS Awareness Month, tracking commonly used hashtags as surrogate markers, patterns of associated emotions and identifying key players, collaborations and trending topics associated with PCOS Awareness Month.

Methods: We utilised several online tools (Symplur, SocioViz.net, Sprout Social, Sentiment Viz, and Google trends) to study the global impact of PCOS Awareness Month using #PCOS, #PCOSawareness, #PCOSawarenessmonth, and a corresponding search query. Network and sentiment analysis was done on the last day of PCOS awareness month to identify common themes and associated topics with the tweets. Google Trends was used to study the web and news search popularity globally to get an overall idea of the internet search trends beyond social media platforms.

Results: While we found a growing trend for #PCOS and related hashtags from 2014 to 2020, we noticed a decline in 2021. In each of these years, the largest spike of both impressions and users for #PCOS was seen at the start of September with a declining trend for the rest of the month. Verified users, who have notably more influence, have shown consistently increasing support for the PCOS Awareness Month from 2014 to 2021. On network analysis, the most commonly associated hashtags with the #PCOS were #endometriosis, #fertility, #womenshealth, #pcossupport, and #infertility. Sentiment analysis revealed most of the tweets were linked to subdued but pleasant emotions. 76% of top influencers collaborated with at least one other person during PCOS Awareness Month activities. Geographically, we noted limited engagement in African, Asian, and non-English speaking European countries

Conclsions: PCOS Awareness Month is an effective strategy to raise awareness with social media playing a crucial role in amplifying the message especially with the usage of hashtags. Further gains can be made by enhancing collaborations between like-minded individuals and organisations to make concerted efforts during PCOS Awareness Month. Our findings also provide an opportunity to understand the current perceptions and expectations amongst the public, which can influence future healthcare investment and research.