Scope, Findability, and Quality of Information About Music-Based Interventions in Oncology: Quantitative Content Analysis of Public-Facing Websites at National Cancer Institute–Designated Cancer Centers
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: Music-based interventions (MBIs) are evidence-based, nonpharmacological treatments that include music therapy (MT) delivered by board-certified music therapists, as well as music services (MS) delivered by other health professionals and volunteers. Despite MBI's growing evidence base in cancer symptom management, it remains unclear how MBI-related information is presented to the public. Over 80% of people with cancer use the internet to find health-related information. In the United States, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) identifies certain Cancer Centers (CCs) as NCI-designated CCs or Comprehensive Cancer Centers (CCCs) based on their excellence in research. As NCI-designated CCs and CCCs are considered the gold standard in cancer care, their websites are viewed by the public as important sources of information. Objective: We aimed to determine scope, findability, and quality of MBI-related information on public-facing websites of NCI-designated CCs/CCCs. Methods: We reviewed 64 NCI-designated CC/CCC websites (excluding basic laboratories) between November 2022 and January 2023. We extracted data on the scope of information: (1) type of MBI offered (MT or MS), (2) format (individual, group), (3) method of delivery (in person or remotely delivered), (4) setting (inpatient or outpatient), (5) target population (pediatric or adult), (6) MBI practitioner qualifications, (7) clinical indications or benefits, (8) presence of testimonials, (9) cost, and (10) scheduling or referral information. We also extracted data on findability (ie, presence of direct link or drop-down menu and the number of clicks to locate MBI-related information). Based on the scope and findability data, we rated the information quality as high, moderate, or low using an adapted scale informed by prior research. Results: Thirty-one (48%) of the 64 CC/CCCs described MBIs on their websites. Of these, 6 (19%) mentioned both MT and MS, 16 (52%) mentioned MT only, and 9 (29%) mentioned MS only. The most common format was hybrid, involving individuals and groups (n=20, 65%). The most common delivery method was in person (n=16, 52%). The most common target population was adults (n=12, 39%). The most common MBI practitioners were board-certified music therapists (n=21, 68%). The most described indications or benefits were psychological. Twenty-eight (90%) websites lacked testimonials, and 26 (84%) lacked cost information. Twenty-six (84%) websites provided scheduling or referral information. MBI-related information was found with an average of 4 (SD 1) clicks. Nine (29%) websites were of high quality, 18 (58%) were moderate, and 4 (13%) were low. Conclusions: Based on public websites, MBIs were most commonly delivered in person by board-certified music therapists to outpatient and inpatient adults, using individual and group formats to provide psychological benefits. The findability and quality of this information should be improved to promote the dissemination of MBIs for cancer symptom management.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.006 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".