Talk to Me: A social media campaign about clinical trials tailored to the needs of young adults with cancer.

67 Background: Among adolescents and young adults (AYAs; 15-39 years) with cancer, clinical trial enrollment (CTE) rates range from 3% to 14%. Patient-directed interventions to improve CTE are rare. Internet-based interventions, while feasible and acceptable to AYAs with cancer, often lack patient input and engagement that are critical to success. AYAs are digital natives and report that the internet and social media are the two most important sources of health-related information. We leveraged AYA engagement with social media and designed a mixed methods research study, "Talk to Me," to create targeted social media messages to increase awareness about CTE for AYAs with cancer. Methods: Our interdisciplinary study team includes clinicians, researchers, health educators, and AYA patient advocates. We conducted 5 focus groups among a demographically, clinically, and geographically diverse group of AYAs with cancer (n=35) to identify priority topics to 1) inform the development of social media message libraries to address informational gaps and dispel myths surrounding CTE and 2) guide implementation strategies of these messages. Design mock-ups and color palettes were co-designed and co-developed with focus group participants and patient advocates through iterative feedback. Results: Guided by qualitative findings, social media posts were categorized into "introduction", "knowledge dissemination", and "addressing social, cultural, emotional, and financial issues" related to CTE. Instagram was selected to host our messages as the demographics of users most closely matched that of our target audience. Hashtags were carefully chosen based on existing posts of related material on Instagram. Links to trusted sources for additional information were embedded in the post descriptions and housed in a linktr.ee bio-landing page. The campaign was officially launched on Instagram in April 2024. We posted 3 times a week in both English and Spanish and monitored metrics biweekly to assess engagement and reach. Over nearly 2 months, 42 messages were posted, 116 users followed the account, 656 accounts were reached, 108 accounts were engaged, and 432 visited our profile page. Engagement peaked in Week 2 with 238 accounts reached and in Week 6 with 119. Overall, there were 173 likes (English=128, Spanish=43). Conclusions: An interdisciplinary, patient-informed, iterative approach to developing a social media knowledge intervention demonstrates a robust, methodologic approach to developing acceptable information and messages for AYAs who may consider participating in clinical trials.