Social Media in the Times of COVID-19

Identifying Reddit Users at a High Risk of Suicide and Their Linguistic Features During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Growth-Based Trajectory Model

BACKGROUND

Suicide has emerged as a critical public health concern during the COVID-19 pandemic. With social distancing measures in place, social media has become a significant platform for individuals expressing suicidal thoughts and behaviors. However, existing studies on suicide using social media data often overlook the diversity among users and the temporal dynamics of suicide risk.

OBJECTIVE

By examining the variations in post volume trajectories among users on the r/SuicideWatch subreddit during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study aims to investigate the heterogeneous patterns of change in suicide risk to help identify social media users at high risk of suicide. We also characterized their linguistic features before and during the pandemic.

METHODS

We collected and analyzed post data every 6 months from March 2019 to August 2022 for users on the r/SuicideWatch subreddit (N=6163). A growth-based trajectory model was then used to investigate the trajectories of post volume to identify patterns of change in suicide risk during the pandemic. Trends in linguistic features within posts were also charted and compared, and linguistic markers were identified across the trajectory groups using regression analysis.

RESULTS

We identified 2 distinct trajectories of post volume among r/SuicideWatch subreddit users. A small proportion of users (744/6163, 12.07%) was labeled as having a high risk of suicide, showing a sharp and lasting increase in post volume during the pandemic. By contrast, most users (5419/6163, 87.93%) were categorized as being at low risk of suicide, with a consistently low and mild increase in post volume during the pandemic. In terms of the frequency of most linguistic features, both groups showed increases at the initial stage of the pandemic. Subsequently, the rising trend continued in the high-risk group before declining, while the low-risk group showed an immediate decrease. One year after the pandemic outbreak, the 2 groups exhibited differences in their use of words related to the categories of personal pronouns; affective, social, cognitive, and biological processes; drives; relativity; time orientations; and personal concerns. In particular, the high-risk group was discriminant in using words related to anger (odds ratio [OR] 3.23, P<.001), sadness (OR 3.23, P<.001), health (OR 2.56, P=.005), achievement (OR 1.67, P=.049), motion (OR 4.17, P<.001), future focus (OR 2.86, P<.001), and death (OR 4.35, P<.001) during this stage.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the 2 identified trajectories of post volume during the pandemic, this study divided users on the r/SuicideWatch subreddit into suicide high- and low-risk groups. Our findings indicated heterogeneous patterns of change in suicide risk in response to the pandemic. The high-risk group also demonstrated distinct linguistic features. We recommend conducting real-time surveillance of suicide risk using social media data during future public health crises to provide timely support to individuals at potentially high risk of suicide.

Instagram for audience engagement: an evaluation of CERC framework in the GCC nations for digital public health during the Covid-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

In this study, we investigate the utilization of Instagram by public health ministries across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations to disseminate health-related information during the COVID-19 pandemic. With Instagram's visual-centric approach and high user engagement, the research aims to investigate its critical yet complex role in information dissemination amid a health crisis.

METHODS

To examine how Instagram communication strategies align with the CDC's Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) framework, we employ the content analysis method. This approach helps to evaluate the effectiveness and challenges of employing Instagram for health communication within a region known for its significant social media usage.

RESULTS

Findings indicate that Instagram serves as a vital platform for the rapid dissemination of health information in the GCC, leveraging its visual capabilities and wide reach. The GCC ministries of health utilized Instagram to demonstrate a consistent and strategic approach to communicate essential COVID-19 related information. Kuwait and Bahrain were the most active of all the assessed ministries with respect to the number of engagement metrics (likes and comments). Most of the posts, as per the CERC framework, were informational and related to vaccine infection and death cases. The second most salient theme in line with the CERC framework was about promoting actions, followed by Instagram posts about activities, events, and campaigns.

CONCLUSIONS

The research underscores Instagram's potential as a powerful tool in enhancing public health resilience and responsiveness during health emergencies in the GCC. It suggests that leveraging social media, with careful consideration of its affordances, can contribute significantly to effective health communication strategies in times of crisis.

Listening to patients, for the patients: The COVAD Study-Vision, organizational structure, and challenges

BACKGROUND

The pandemic presented unique challenges for individuals with autoimmune and rheumatic diseases (AIRDs) due to their underlying condition, the effects of immunosuppressive treatments, and increased vaccine hesitancy.

OBJECTIVES

The COVID-19 vaccination in autoimmune diseases (COVAD) study, a series of ongoing, patient self-reported surveys were conceived with the vision of being a unique tool to gather patient perspectives on AIRDs. It involved a multinational, multicenter collaborative effort amidst a global lockdown.

METHODS

Leveraging social media as a research tool, COVAD collected data using validated patient-reported outcomes (PROs). The study, comprising a core team, steering committee, and global collaborators, facilitated data collection and analysis. A pilot-tested, validated survey, featuring questions regarding COVID-19 infection, vaccination and outcomes, patient demographics, and PROs was circulated to patients with AIRDs and healthy controls (HCs).

DISCUSSION

We present the challenges encountered during this international collaborative project, including coordination, data management, funding constraints, language barriers, and authorship concerns, while highlighting the measures taken to address them.

CONCLUSION

Collaborative virtual models offer a dynamic new frontier in medical research and are vital to studying rare diseases. The COVAD study demonstrates the potential of online platforms for conducting large-scale, patient-focused research and underscores the importance of integrating patient perspective into clinical care. Care of patients is our central motivation, and it is essential to recognize their voices as equal stakeholders and valued partners in the study of the conditions that affect them.

Experiences and care needs of children with long COVID: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Long COVID, the patient-preferred term, describes symptoms persisting after an acute episode of COVID-19 infection. Symptoms in children and young people (CYP) can affect daily routine, with broader impacts on education, health-related quality of life, and social activities, which may have long-term effects on health and wellbeing.

AIM

To explore the lived experiences and care needs of CYP with long COVID from the perspectives of CYP with long COVID, their parents, and professionals associated with the care of children and families living with the condition.

DESIGN & SETTING

CYP and their parent or carer were invited for interview following participation in a cohort study, which recruited the sample from a primary care setting.

METHOD

Interviews were carried out with four CYP with long COVID (all female, aged 10-17 years); three interviews included a parent. Two focus groups were conducted, which included seven professionals involved with care of CYP or long COVID, from a range of disciplines. Interviews and focus groups were transcribed verbatim, and data analysed thematically using constant comparison techniques.

RESULTS

The three main themes presented are as follows: living with long COVID; uncertainty surrounding long COVID; and seeking help for symptoms.

CONCLUSION

Long COVID can severely impact the lives of CYP and their families. CYP and their families need to be listened to by professionals and have any uncertainties acknowledged. It is imperative that agencies working with them understand the condition and its impact, and are able to offer support where needed.

The role of social media in public health crises caused by infectious disease: a scoping review

IMPORTANCE

The onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic highlighted the increasing role played by social media in the generation, dissemination and consumption of outbreak-related information.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the current review is to identify and summarise the role of social media in public health crises caused by infectious disease, using a five-step scoping review protocol.

EVIDENCE REVIEW

Keyword lists for two categories were generated: social media and public health crisis. By combining these keywords, an advanced search of various relevant databases was performed to identify all articles of interest from 2000 to 2021, with an initial retrieval date of 13 December 2021. A total of six medical and health science, psychology, social science and communication databases were searched: PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, PsycINFO and CNKI. A three-stage screening process against inclusion and exclusion criteria was conducted.

FINDINGS

A total of 338 studies were identified for data extraction, with the earliest study published in 2010. Thematic analysis of the role of social media revealed three broad themes: surveillance monitoring, risk communication and disease control. Within these themes, 12 subthemes were also identified. Within surveillance monitoring, the subthemes were disease detection and prediction, public attitude and attention, public sentiment and mental health. Within risk communication, the subthemes were health advice, information-seeking behaviour, infodemics/misinformation circulation, seeking help online, online distance education and telehealth. Finally, within disease control, the subthemes were government response, public behaviour change and health education information quality. It was clear that the pace of research in this area has gradually increased over time as social media has evolved, with an explosion in attention following the outbreak of COVID-19.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

Social media has become a hugely powerful force in public health and cannot be ignored or viewed as a minor consideration when developing public health policy. Limitations of the study are discussed, along with implications for government, health authorities and individual users. The pressing need for government and health authorities to formalise evidence-based strategies for communicating via social media is highlighted, as well as issues for individual users in assessing the quality and reliability of information consumed on social media platforms.

Understanding early experiences of Chinese frontline nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: A text mining and thematic analysis of social media information

This study aims to explore the early experiences of frontline nurses at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in China as expressed through social media posts. This study used an explanatory sequential mixed-method design. Text mining was used for sentiment analysis. The chi-square test was used to compare the differences in the composition ratio of sentiment classification of posts in different months. Word frequency was statistically analyzed. Further thematic analysis was also performed. The primary sentiments of the posts were discovered to be positive and neutral. The number of posts containing positive emotions was the lowest in January, peaked in March, and gradually declined in April 2020. The following nurse-oriented narrative themes were developed: "To see and be seen," "Moving forward amid adversity and support," and "Returning to everyday life and constructing meaning." The sentiments of Chinese nurses in response to the pandemic fluctuated, with positive emotions in the early stage, but it could not be sustained. This study recommends nurses could be encouraged to engage in expressive writing while adhering to ethical guidelines.

The Use of Social Media by Clinical Nurse Specialists at a Tertiary Hospital: Mixed Methods Study

BACKGROUND

Recently, many health care professionals, who use social media to communicate with patients and colleagues, share information about medical research and promote public health campaigns.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to examine the motives, barriers, and implementation of social media use among clinical nurse specialists in Oman.

METHODS

A mixed methods study was conducted among 47 clinical nurse specialists at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital between November and December 2020. Qualitative data were collected using an open-ended questionnaire and analyzed using thematic analysis, and quantitative data were collected with a questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS (version 21.0; IBM Corp).

RESULTS

Of the 47 clinical nurse specialists surveyed, 43 (91.5%) responded. All respondents reported using social media applications, with WhatsApp being the most commonly used platform. Most respondents (n=18, 41.9%) spent 1-2 hours per day on social media. The main motives for using social media were increasing knowledge, communication, reaching patients easily, and reducing the number of hospital visits. The main barriers to social media use were privacy concerns, time constraints, and a lack of awareness of legal guidelines for social media use in the workplace. All participants requested clear rules and regulations regarding the use of social media among health care providers in the future.

CONCLUSIONS

Social media has the option to be a powerful institutional communication and health education tool for clinical nurse specialists in Oman. However, several obstacles must be addressed, including privacy concerns and the need for clear guidelines on social media use in the workplace. Our findings suggest that health care institutions and clinical nurse specialists must work together to overcome these impediments and leverage the benefits of social media for health care.Bottom of Form.

Community efforts to promote vaccine uptake in a rural setting: a qualitative interview study

Vaccine hesitancy has been identified as one of the top 10 threats to global health. The causes of low vaccine uptake are many and vary at micro and macro levels. However, rural and remote coastal areas in the UK experience unique vaccine inequalities due to high levels of deprivation and their unique and complex access-related problems. This study aimed to explore community efforts to promote vaccine uptake during the COVID-19 pandemic and understand how the COVID-19 vaccination campaign was experienced by the public. We conducted an exploratory descriptive qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with decision-makers, health professionals and community members in Lincolnshire, a predominantly rural county with a long coastline, a large population of white minority ethnicities, and those living in caravan and temporary housing. Data were analysed using conventional content analysis. Overcoming the various access barriers to vaccination uptake involved working with local media stations, local communities and local community groups, translation of information, bringing vaccines closer to the people through pop-up and mobile clinics and provision of transport and ensuring confidentiality. There is a need to employ inclusive targeted non-conventional care interventions whilst dealing with complex problems as occur in rural and remote coastal regions.

Deep learning for COVID-19 topic modelling via Twitter: Alpha, Delta and Omicron

Topic modelling with innovative deep learning methods has gained interest for a wide range of applications that includes COVID-19. It can provide, psychological, social and cultural insights for understanding human behaviour in extreme events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we use prominent deep learning-based language models for COVID-19 topic modelling taking into account data from the emergence (Alpha) to the Omicron variant in India. Our results show that the topics extracted for the subsequent waves had certain overlapping themes such as governance, vaccination, and pandemic management while novel issues aroused in political, social and economic situations during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also find a strong correlation between the major topics with news media prevalent during the respective time period. Hence, our framework has the potential to capture major issues arising during different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic which can be extended to other countries and regions.

Perceived risk, emotions, and stress in response to COVID-19: The interplay of media use and partisanship

Relationships between risk perceptions, emotions, and stress are well-documented, as are interconnections between stress, emotion, and media use. During the early COVID-19 pandemic, the public responded psychologically to the threat posed by the pandemic, and frequently utilized media for information and entertainment. However, we lack a comprehensive picture of how perceived risk, emotion, stress, and media affected each other longitudinally during this time. Further, although response to the pandemic was highly politicized, research has yet to address how partisan affiliation moderated relationships between risk, emotion, stress, and media use over time. This three-wave (N = 1021) panel study assessed the interplay of risk, emotion, stress, and media use for Americans with different political affiliations between March and May of 2020. Findings indicate that perceived risk, emotion, and stress at Time 1 predicted media use at Time 2, with predictors varying by type of media. Use of entertainment media and social/mobile media predicted later stress (Time 3), but news consumption did not. Later risk perceptions (Time 3) were not influenced by media use at Time 2. The predictors and consequences of different types of media use were notably different for Republicans and Democrats. In particular, risk perceptions predicted greater news use among Democrats but greater entertainment media use among Republicans. Moreover, social/mobile media use resulted in perceiving the risks of COVID-19 as less serious for Republicans while increasing stress over time for Democrats.

COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance, Attitude, Hesitancy, and Its Associated Factors among Wolaita Sodo University Students: A Mixed-Method Study

Background

Countries in the world have been experiencing the ongoing impact and spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) virus pandemic. The health and financial burden of the pandemic has prompted the need for timely and effective vaccination to be considered as the best strategy for controlling disease transmission. However, vaccine acceptability remains an area of concern in developing countries like Ethiopia.

Objective

To assess attitude, hesitancy in the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, and associated factors among health science students at Wolaita Sodo University.

Methods

A triangulated mixed-method study was conducted. Quantitative data were entered into SPSS Windows version 25 for analysis, and the qualitative data were transcribed using open code version 4.3. A binary logistic regression model was used to establish the association between dependent and independent variables. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to measure the strengths of the association. Thematic approach was used for qualitative data analysis.

Results

A total of 352 students participated in this study. Having family members who were infected with COVID-19, information about COVID-19 vaccine, the need for a vaccine with the level of concern, intention to take COVID-19 vaccine, and academic year were strongly associated with vaccine acceptability. Graduating class and other senior students were about 4 and 2 times more likely to accept vaccination as compared to freshman-year students (AOR = 4.128; 95% CI: 1.351-12.610;P = 0.012) and (AOR = 2.195; 95% CI: 1.182-4.077; P value = 0.013), respectively. Even if 67% of students had a good attitude towards the vaccine, 56% of the students hesitated to take the vaccine.

Conclusion

The majority of respondents had a constructive attitude towards the COVID-19 vaccine, and only a few of them were vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. It is of utmost importance to design an evidence-based strategy to increase the uptake of vaccination for healthcare students and other nonhealth science students in universities.

Multilingual text categorization and sentiment analysis: a comparative analysis of the utilization of multilingual approaches for classifying twitter data

Text categorization and sentiment analysis are two of the most typical natural language processing tasks with various emerging applications implemented and utilized in different domains, such as health care and policy making. At the same time, the tremendous growth in the popularity and usage of social media, such as Twitter, has resulted on an immense increase in user-generated data, as mainly represented by the corresponding texts in users' posts. However, the analysis of these specific data and the extraction of actionable knowledge and added value out of them is a challenging task due to the domain diversity and the high multilingualism that characterizes these data. The latter highlights the emerging need for the implementation and utilization of domain-agnostic and multilingual solutions. To investigate a portion of these challenges this research work performs a comparative analysis of multilingual approaches for classifying both the sentiment and the text of an examined multilingual corpus. In this context, four multilingual BERT-based classifiers and a zero-shot classification approach are utilized and compared in terms of their accuracy and applicability in the classification of multilingual data. Their comparison has unveiled insightful outcomes and has a twofold interpretation. Multilingual BERT-based classifiers achieve high performances and transfer inference when trained and fine-tuned on multilingual data. While also the zero-shot approach presents a novel technique for creating multilingual solutions in a faster, more efficient, and scalable way. It can easily be fitted to new languages and new tasks while achieving relatively good results across many languages. However, when efficiency and scalability are less important than accuracy, it seems that this model, and zero-shot models in general, can not be compared to fine-tuned and trained multilingual BERT-based classifiers.

Assessment of quality and reliability of YouTube videos for patient and physician education on inflammatory myositis

INTRODUCTION

YouTube is the second most popular search website worldwide to access health information online. This study was undertaken to assess the reliability and quality of information about myositis on YouTube and delineate attributes of useful videos using standard metrics.

METHODS

We conducted a thorough search on YouTube using 9 search terms related to myositis. The inclusion criteria were content related to myositis, English language and acceptable audio-video quality. Duplicates and advertisements were excluded from the analysis. Videos were classified as useful, not very useful or misleading and patient narratives. Reliability was determined using the mDISCERN criteria, quality using the Global Quality Scale (GQS) and JAMA system, using appropriate cut-offs (mDISCERN > 4, GQS > 4, JAMA > 3).

RESULTS

Out of a total of 900 videos, 453 were included for the analysis. Seventy-four per cent and 2% provided useful and not very useful information respectively, while 24% were patient narratives. Seventy-one per cent were intended specifically for patients while 69% were for healthcare providers and students. Noteworthily, useful and not very useful videos had similar total views though the number of likes and daily viewership were higher for useful videos (p = 0.024, p = 0.046). Nearly half (47%) of useful videos were by professional medical societies/patient support groups (PSGs) while not very useful ones were by nonmedical media (38%). Physician-predicted usefulness was discordant with score-based usefulness (κ = 0.129). However, GQS emerged as a significant (p = 0.008) predictor of video usefulness in multivariate analysis.

CONCLUSION

A large majority of English YouTube videos on myositis provide useful information for patients. Physicians could signpost patients to high-quality useful videos as determined by GQS and sources like professional medical societies and PSGs. Key Points •This study highlights the importance of regulating health information posted online, accessed by millions of people, to gauge the quality of information and to identify and curb misinformation. •It also identifies recommendations for the future for uploading such content on the Internet. •The implications lie in our patients being better informed about their disease as they are important stakeholders in the healthcare decision-making process.

Mindfulness and Subjective Well-Being of Indian University Students: Role of Resilience during COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is presently a global health issue that negatively affects the mental health and well-being of students globally. The latest investigations have recognized the role of mindfulness in individual subjective well-being. This study explores the mediating role of resilience in the overall relationship between mindfulness and subjective well-being among Indian university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data was collected between 10 August 2020 to 24 October 2020 via a self-administered questionnaire from 589 university students in India. Results revealed that resilience has a partial mediating role between mindfulness and subjective well-being. The results substantiate that resilience has an important role in mindfulness, exercising its advantageous effects on mental health of the students in higher education institutions. This research adds to the knowledge base of mindfulness and subjective well-being of university students, especially in contingent times. Lastly, the study contributes to the existing mindfulness theory.

Creating Understandable and Actionable COVID-19 Health Messaging for Refugee, Immigrant, and Migrant Communities

During the coronavirus pandemic, it was imperative that real-time, rapidly changing guidance on continuously evolving critical health information about COVID-19 be communicated. This case study highlights how understandable and actionable COVID-19 health information was systematically developed and disseminated to support highly vulnerable refugee, immigrant, and migrant (RIM) communities in Clarkston, Georgia. Our approach was grounded in community-based participatory research (CBPR) incorporating Cultural and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) standards, plain language and health literacy guidelines, and health communication science to improve the understandability and usability of COVID-19 micro-targeted messaging for RIM communities. We followed a centralized systematic approach to materials development and incorporated local needs and existing networks to ensure cultural and linguistic responsiveness as well as understandability for populations with limited literacy skills. Further, iterative development of materials with community members and agencies provided buy-in prior to dissemination. As part of a multi-pronged community-wide effort, effective materials and messaging provided support to community health workers and organizations working to improve vaccination rates among the RIM community. As a result, we saw vaccine rates in Clarkston outpace other similar areas of the county and state due to this community-wide effort.

Adoption of Social Media during Covid-19 Pandemic by African Presidents: A Cross-Sectional Study of Selected Facebook Accounts

This paper examined the adoption of social media to disperse information at the beginning of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Content analysis was employed to identify and select relevant posts for presidents of five African countries (Egypt, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and Nigeria) from February to July 2020, which were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods. Results indicate that African leaders utilized Facebook mostly in April, posting majorly in text form about issues centered on diplomatic ties, information and orientation, and preventive measures. Followers were more inclined to share the posts than they react by emojis and comments based on Facebook account, post form, and post topic. The findings demonstratively uphold the significance of social media in leadership communication, highlighting ways by which frequent and dominant content can be directed in messages during a crisis.

#Coronavirus on TikTok: user engagement with misinformation as a potential threat to public health behavior

Coronavirus disease (COVID)-related misinformation is prevalent online, including on social media. The purpose of this study was to explore factors associated with user engagement with COVID-related misinformation on the social media platform, TikTok. A sample of TikTok videos associated with the hashtag #coronavirus was downloaded on September 20, 2020. Misinformation was evaluated on a scale (low, medium, and high) using a codebook developed by experts in infectious diseases. Multivariable modeling was used to evaluate factors associated with number of views and presence of user comments indicating intention to change behavior. One hundred and sixty-six TikTok videos were identified and reviewed. Moderate misinformation was present in 36 (22%) videos viewed a median of 6.8 million times (interquartile range [IQR] 3.6-16 million), and high-level misinformation was present in 11 (7%) videos viewed a median of 9.4 million times (IQR 5.1-18 million). After controlling for characteristics and content, videos containing moderate misinformation were less likely to generate a user response indicating intended behavior change. By contrast, videos containing high-level misinformation were less likely to be viewed but demonstrated a nonsignificant trend towards higher engagement among viewers. COVID-related misinformation is less frequently viewed on TikTok but more likely to engage viewers. Public health authorities can combat misinformation on social media by posting informative content of their own.

Childbearing decisions and related factors in the COVID-19 pandemic: A narrative review study

The COVID-19 pandemic has had considerable consequences in many areas of life, including the social area and childbearing plans. The present narrative review aimed to examine the childbearing decisions and its related factors during the COVID-19 pandemic. This review was conducted by searching in scientific databases, including Web of Science, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Scopus, Cochrane, PubMed, ProQuest, Scientific Information Database (SID), Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IranDoc) and Iranian Journal Database (Magiran) in June 2022. The search resulted in 111 sources, of which 16 were in line with the research objective. Couples have mainly cancelled or delayed their previous plans related to childbearing decisions. There are two groups of direct and indirect factors related to childbearing decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic: The former includes (1) well-being-related factors such as economic conditions, interpersonal relationships and gender roles in terms of task division; and (2) health-related factors, including health emergencies and physical and psychological health. The latter includes factors such as social distancing and social media. Based on the results, governments should facilitate childbearing by adjusting existing policies, addressing economic insecurity and protecting the livelihoods of those affected by the crisis. Health policymakers and planners must also prioritize women's access to reproductive health services in a safe environment while promoting equity in access. It is also necessary to promote the quality and quantity of indirect care and virtual counseling based on the needs of women in crisis.

From Heroes to Scoundrels: Exploring the effects of online campaigns celebrating frontline workers on COVID-19 outcomes

This paper examines the effects of online campaigns celebrating frontline workers on COVID-19 outcomes regarding new cases, deaths, and vaccinations, using the United Kingdom as a case study. We implement text and sentiment analysis on Twitter data and feed the result into random regression forests and cointegration analysis. Our combined machine learning and econometric approach shows very weak effects of both the volume and the sentiment of Twitter discussions on new cases, deaths, and vaccinations. On the other hand, established relationships (such as between stringency measures and cases/deaths and between vaccinations and deaths) are confirmed. On the contrary, we find adverse lagged effects from negative sentiment to vaccinations and from new cases to negative sentiment posts. As we assess the knowledge acquired from the COVID-19 crisis, our findings can be used by policy makers, particularly in public health, and prepare for the next pandemic.

Resilience and (Dis)empowerment: Use of Social Media Among Female Mainland Low-Skilled Workers in Macao During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The role of social media in a resilient process is associated with the co-constitution of structural forces and users' agency. During COVID-19, how women-particularly low-skilled labor migrants-used social media for empowerment is underexplored. By taking a socio-techno approach, this study qualitatively examines mobile phone-based social media usage among female mainland low-skilled workers in Macao when coping with the pandemic. The enabling yet constraining role of social media has been identified through semi-structured interviews. Social media use is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, social media is appropriated to relieve stress and anxiety, open access to updated COVID-19 related information, and manage contagious risks; on the other hand, it reinforces existing constraints and thus hinders resilience, due to female migrant workers' high risk of addictive social media use and limited information literacy. Moving beyond the Information and Communication Technology empowerment, a more inclusive approach is recommended in the long term to cope with the risks and uncertainties posed by the pandemic.

SOCIAL MEDIA IN SCIENCE

Day by day, social media are entering our lives changing our every-day life and habits. This could not leave science unaffected. Over the last years, a lot of scientists have started using social media, exchanging ideas and sharing knowledge. Scientific journals have also followed being active participators in the social media world. In this opinion article we provide some arguments about the positive role of social media in the life of a scientist, highlighting at the same time the caveats that are encountered.  

Reasons underlying the intention to vaccinate children aged 5-11 against COVID-19: A cross-sectional study of parents in Israel, November 2021

Vaccination is a key tool to mitigate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Israel, COVID-19 vaccines became available to adults in December 2020 and to 5-11-year-old children in November 2021. Ahead of the vaccine roll-out in children, we aimed to determine whether surveyed parents intended to vaccinate their children and describe reasons for their intentions. We collected information on parental socio-demographic characteristics, COVID-19 vaccine history, intention to vaccinate their children against COVID-19, and reasons for parental decisions using an anonymous online survey. We identified associations between parental characteristics and plans to vaccinate children using a logistic regression model and described reasons for intentions to vaccinate or not. Parental non-vaccination and having experienced major vaccination side effects were strongly associated with non-intention to vaccinate their children (OR 0.09 and 0.18 respectively, p < .001). Parents who were younger, lived in the socio-economically deprived periphery, and belonged to the Arab population had lower intentions to vaccinate their children. Reasons for non-intention to vaccinate included concerns about vaccine safety and efficacy (53%, 95%CI 50-56) and the belief that COVID-19 is a mild disease (73%, 95%CI 73-79), while a frequent motive for vaccination was the return to normal social and educational life (89%, 95%CI 87-91). Understanding rationales for COVID-19 vaccine rejection or acceptance, as well as parental demographic data, can pave the way for intentional educational campaigns to encourage not only vaccination against COVID-19, but also regular childhood vaccine programming.

The Relationship between Intolerance of Uncertainty and Problematic Social Media Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Serial Mediation Model

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant interruptions to life certainty, and there has been a lack of research on the influence of uncertainty. The present research aimed to explore how intolerance of uncertainty, maladaptive coping strategies, and fear of missing out affect social media use in a Chinese community sample (N = 311) during the pandemic. Serial mediation analysis was applied, integrating the mediating role of maladaptive coping strategy and fear of missing out. Intolerance of uncertainty, maladaptive coping strategies, and fear of missing out was positively related to PSMU. Based on the mediation analysis, when age and gender were controlled, the direct effect of intolerance of uncertainty on PSMU was significant. The total indirect effect was also significant. The effect of intolerance of uncertainty on PSMU was mediated by maladaptive coping strategies and fear of missing out. Taken together, maladaptive coping strategies and fear of missing out played a serial mediating role between intolerance of uncertainty and PSMU. The findings imply that strategies to improve the tolerance of uncertainty, reduce fear of missing out, and relevant coping strategies could be potentially helpful in mitigating problematic social media use, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Long-COVID Experience Changed People's Vaccine Hesitancy but Not Their Vaccination Fear

Starting in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has been responsible, worldwide, for millions of deaths and patients with long-COVID syndrome. In an attempt to stop the spread of the virus, the blanket administration of COVID-19 vaccines proved to be the most effective measure, yet the existence and availability of functional vaccines did not and, still, do not ensure the willingness and intent of people to be vaccinated. This study assessed the similarities and differences in vaccine fears and vaccine hesitancy through between clusters of subjects: people that were not infected with COVID-19, people that had COVID but did not develop long-lasting symptoms, and people that were infected with COVID and developed long-COVID syndrome. From the sample of 1111 Italian people, it was found that individuals who experienced mild symptoms showed higher vaccine hesitancy (confidence, complacency, and collective responsibility) than those who did not contract COVID-19. People affected by long-COVID showed a lower overall hesitancy than individuals who had COVID-19 without incurring long-lasting symptoms and, thus, essentially resembled people who had no experience of COVID-19 infection in terms of the vaccine hesitancy scores. Vaccine fear remained unchanged across all three of the examined clusters.

How local outbreak of COVID-19 affect the risk of internet public opinion: A Chinese social media case study

Motivated by the realistic demand of controlling the Internet public opinion risk caused by the local outbreak of COVID-19, this paper creatively proposes a COVID-19 local outbreak Internet public opinion risk grading research framework. The SMAA-FAHPSort II method combining Analytic Hierarchy Process Sort II (AHPSort II) method with Stochastic Multicriteria Acceptability Analysis (SMAA-2) method is introduced into this framework, to evaluate the Internet public opinion risk level of social media during the local outbreak of COVID-19. In addition, this framework is applied to a case of Internet public opinion risk evaluation on Microblog platform of China. According to the number of new cases per day in mainland China, this paper divides the period from May 7, 2020 to September 3, 2021 into seven stages. A total of more than 10,000 Microblog hot topics were collected, after screening and preprocessing, 5422 related topics are remained to help complete the Internet public opinion risk evaluation. The case study analysis results show that the number of days classified as moderate risk and above has reached more than 280. This proves that the local outbreak of COVID-19 will indeed increase the risk of Internet public opinion, and correlation analysis confirms that the level of public opinion risk is positively correlated with the severity of the epidemic in the real world. Furthermore, the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed method are verified by comparative analysis and sensitivity analysis. Finally, some effective public opinion management suggestions have been put forward. This paper can provide reference for the government to formulate or improve relevant strategies, and also has great significance for reducing the risk of Internet public opinion in social media.

Unpacking the Land and Socio-Economic Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Rural Kenya

Following its outbreak in late 2019, the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been reported to have had devastating human health, health systems, and socioeconomic impacts across the globe. Countries in the Global South are known to have been hit harder given the low level of resilience to crises amid high levels of poverty and limited social protection programmes. This includes countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Most of the existing studies on the COVID-19 pandemic in SSA, however, have focused on the puzzling nature of the considerably low rate at which the virus spread over the continent, the low level of hospitalisation, and the corresponding low morbidity rate. As such, little focus has been given to the social and economic effects of the pandemic in the local communities. Carried out in two rural communities in Kenya—Kilifi and Murang’a—the present study adopts a case study approach for an in-depth, real-life context and explores the socioeconomic (including land-related) effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the vulnerable rural population and the social group of smallholder farmers. Outcomes of the study show that the local effects of the pandemic are context specific. The findings demonstrate that the pandemic has had far-reaching impact on access to and control over land for some households in the rural communities. It was also accompanied with other negative social and economic effects, including a notable rise in teenage pregnancy, intra-household conflicts, job losses, and businesses closures. Positively, it is also claimed to have contributed to food and nutrition security in some rural regions, following increased availability of nutritious food that could have, otherwise, been sold.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Physical (In)Activity Behavior in 10 Arab Countries

Insufficient physical activity is considered a strong risk factor associated with non-communicable diseases. This study aimed to assess the impact of COVID-19 on physical (in)activity behavior in 10 Arab countries before and during the lockdown. A cross-sectional study using a validated online survey was launched originally in 38 different countries. The Eastern Mediterranean regional data related to the 10 Arabic countries that participated in the survey were selected for analysis in this study. A total of 12,433 participants were included in this analysis. The mean age of the participants was 30.3 (SD, 11.7) years. Descriptive and regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations between physical activity levels and the participants' sociodemographic characteristics, watching TV, screen time, and computer usage. Physical activity levels decreased significantly during the lockdown. Participants' country of origin, gender, and education were associated with physical activity before and during the lockdown (p < 0.050). Older age, watching TV, and using computers had a negative effect on physical activity before and during the lockdown (p < 0.050). Strategies to improve physical activity and minimize sedentary behavior should be implemented, as well as to reduce unhealthy levels of inactive time, especially during times of crisis. Further research on the influence of a lack of physical activity on overall health status, as well as on the COVID-19 disease effect is recommended.

The Coverage and Acceptance Spectrum of COVID-19 Vaccines among Healthcare Professionals in Western Tanzania: What Can We Learn from This Pandemic?

The vaccination rate against COVID-19 remains low in developing countries due to vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy is a public health threat in curbing COVID-19 pandemic globally. Healthcare professionals have been found to play a critical role in vaccine advocacy and promotion campaigns in the general population. A cross sectional study was conducted in the initial months of the COVID-19 vaccination roll out program in Tanzania to determine the acceptance rate, perceived barriers, and cues for actions. A total of 811 healthcare professionals participated from 26 health facilities in western Tanzania. The World Health Organization (WHO) vaccine acceptance questionnaire was adopted with minor modifications to capture the local contexts and used in data collection. Only (18.5%) healthcare professionals had received a COVID-19 vaccine and acceptance rate was 29%. The majority (62%) of participants were in the hesitancy stage due to issues related to lack of effective communication and reliable information regarding efficacy and safety. In this era of COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to engage and involve public health figures and opinion leaders through transparent dialogue to clarify vaccine-related safety, quality, and efficacy. These strategies will reduce misconception, mistrust, and improve uptake among healthcare professionals and eventually in the general population.

A Twitter-facilitated professional learning community: online participation, connectedness, and satisfaction

BACKGROUND

Twitter has gained increasing popularity and attention as a professional learning environment to share knowledge, exchange information, make connections, and build networks. To evaluate the effectiveness of Twitter-facilitated online discussions, a community of inquiry framework could be used with the three key elements of online environments: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. This study aims to explore how medical educators participate in synchronous online discussions on Twitter using #MedEdChat, and how participants' perceptions toward the three presences, sense of connectedness and interactions influenced their online satisfaction.

METHODS

A survey invitation was emailed using the medical education email list DR-ED and was posted during the weekly Twitter conversations in December 2020, to solicit participants who have been involved in any kind of #MedEdChat activities (i.e., read transcripts or directly participate in discussions).

RESULTS

A total of 68 people responded. Through descriptive analysis and path analysis, we found that almost half of the survey respondents were lurkers on #MedEdChat who read others' tweets or transcripts. In addition, participants mainly used Twitter for resource sharing, collaborating with others, and networking. Participants rated teaching (i.e., moderator) presence the highest, followed by overall satisfaction, cognitive presence, sense of connectedness, social presence, and interactions. Among them, sense of connectedness and cognitive presence were significantly associated with participants' overall satisfaction.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provided significant implications for using Twitter as a professional learning community to conduct online discussion activities. Facilitators could think of ways to improve participation by providing tutorials on how to participate on Twitter discussions, introduce or ask new participants to introduce themselves, facilitate discussion with intriguing questions, and invite medical educators of different roles as well as medical students and residents to join to bring in diverse perspectives.

Social Life of Females with Persistent COVID-19 Symptoms: A Qualitative Study

Persistent COVID-19 symptoms (long COVID) may bring challenges to long haulers’ social lives. Females may endure more profound impacts given their special social roles and existing structural inequality. This study explores the effects of long COVID on the social life of female long haulers. We conducted semi-structured interviews via Zoom between April and June 2021 with 15 female long haulers in the United States, purposely recruited from Facebook and Slack groups and organization websites related to long COVID. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim with consent. The interview data were managed using MAXQDA and examined by thematic analysis. Long COVID negatively affected female long haulers’ social lives by causing physical limitations, economic issues, altered social relationships, social roles’ conflicts, and social stigma. Long COVID prevented female long haulers’ recovery process. Physical limitations altered their perceptions on body, and family–work conflicts caused tremendous stress. They also experienced internalized stigma and job insecurities. This study provides insights into challenges that COVID-19 female long haulers could face in their return to normal social life, underscoring the vulnerability of females affected by long COVID due to significant alterations in their social lives. Shifting to new methods of communication, especially social media, diminished the adverse effects of long COVID (e.g., social isolation).

Knowledge, attitude, and hesitancy towards COVID-19 vaccine among university students of Bangladesh

Global vaccination coverage is an urgent need to recover the recent pandemic COVID-19. However, people are concerned about the safety and efficacy of this vaccination program. Thus, it has become crucial to examine the knowledge, attitude, and hesitancy towards the vaccine. An online cross-sectional survey was conducted among university students of Bangladesh. Total of 449 university students participated. Most of these students used the internet (34.74%), social media (33.41%), and electronic media (25.61%) as a source of COVID-19 vaccine information. Overall, 58.13% and 64.81% of university students reported positive knowledge and attitude towards the COVID-19 vaccine. 54.34% of these students agreed that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective. 43.88% believed that the vaccine could stop the pandemic. The Spearman’s Rank correlation determined the positive correlation between knowledge and attitude. The negative correlation was determined between positive knowledge and hesitancy, and positive attitude and hesitancy. University students with positive knowledge and attitude showed lower hesitancy. Multiple logistic regression analyses determined the university type and degree major as the predictors of knowledge, whereas only degree major was the predictor of attitudes. 26.06% of the study population showed their hesitancy towards the vaccine. University type and degree major were also determined as predictors of this hesitancy. They rated fear of side effects (87.18%) and lack of information (70.94%) as the most reasons for the hesitancy. The findings from this study can aid the ongoing and future COVID-19 vaccination plan for university students. The national and international authorities can have substantial information for a successful inoculation campaign.

Medications and natural products used in Jordan for prevention or treatment of COVID-19 infection during the second wave of the pandemic: A cross-sectional online survey

Worldwide, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, there was an increase in the tendency of misusing prescription drugs as well as self-medicating with over-the-counters. Additionally, an increase in the use of herbs and natural products was reported. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted in Jordan from May 19th to July 29th, 2021, to assess the medications and natural products used in Jordan during the second wave of the pandemic. The survey was developed and validated, then distributed using Google Forms via social media platforms. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences-24. The study participants (n = 386) had a mean age of 29.35 (SD = 11.90) years. Most of participants were females (72.8%), not married (64.5%), non-smoker (69.2%), have a Jordanian nationality (80.6%), hold a bachelor's degree (73.1%), and living in the middle of Jordan (74.1%). More than 70% of the participants used vitamin C, D and pain relievers. The most used natural products were citrus fruits (78.8%), honey (63.0%) and ginger (53.1%). The participants reported that family and friends (55.4%) played a major role in advising them to use medications and dietary supplements. Pharmacists ranked second (54.1%), followed by social media platforms (43.3%). Multiple logistic regression analysis highlighted that only the age significantly affected the participants' use of medications and natural products (P < 0.001). The results of this study warrant the need of conducting awareness campaigns guided by trained healthcare providers to educate people and minimize the risk of side effects that may arise from unsupervised use of medications and natural products.

Public reactions towards Covid-19 vaccination through twitter before and after second wave in India

Social media have a significant impact on opinion building in public. Vaccination in India started in January 2021. We have seen many opinions towards vaccination of the people, as vaccination is one of the most crucial steps toward the fight against COVID-19. In this paper, we have compared the public’s sentiments towards COVID vaccination in India before the second wave and after the second wave. We worked by extracting tweets regarding vaccination in India, building our datasets. We extracted 5977 tweets before the second wave and 42,936 tweets after the second wave. We annotated the collected tweets into four categories, namely Provaccine, Antivaccine, Hesitant and Cognizant. We built a baseline model for sentiment analysis and have used multiple classification techniques among which Random Forest using the TF-IDF vectorization technique gave the best accuracy of 69% using max-features and n-estimators as parameters.

Should I buy or not? Revisiting the concept and measurement of panic buying

Following various precautionary measures as executed by the government to curb the transmission of COVID-19, erratic changes in the form of temporary lockdowns and movement restrictions have created an emergency phenomenon-panic buying. While such consequence has emerged as a timely and relevant topic, reviewed literature indicate an apparent oversight for portraying panic buying through the perspectives of impulsive and compulsive consumptions. Given the gap in the association between panic buying and consumers' emotional aspects within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study aspires to develop a contemporary measurement that accurately defines panic buying as a research variable. A combined methodology was hereby adopted, with the employment of qualitative inquiries towards the scale development of panic buying. Following this, quantitative data as collected from a total sample of 600 respondents through an online survey was analysed via both SPSS and AMOS statistical software towards scale assessment and hypothesis testing. Obtained findings uncovered the direct significance of both personal (fear, perceived risk, and perceived scarcity) and social (word-of-mouth and social media) factors on panic buying during the pandemic, whilst having indirect significance on the ensuing post-purchase regret. Impulsivity was further confirmed to exert a substantial moderating impact on the correlation between panic consumption and post-purchase emotional distress. Implications of the study are ultimately discussed.

The untapped potential of Instagram to facilitate rheumatology academia

Instagram allows for graphical and visual information exchange. This paper aims to explore the current landscape of rheumatology on Instagram and analyse the accounts available based on their objectives and level of engagement. The search term "#rheumatology" reveals 62 results, leaving 55 after careful exclusion. On grouping into "educational", "broadcasting", "support", and a combination of all three, an analysis is carried out using the total number of posts, follower counts, number of caption characters (last 10 posts), likes per post (last 10 posts), archived stories, reels, IgTV (Instagram Television) videos, hashtags, and links in bio. The analysis reveals that 29 accounts (52.7%) disseminate educational content, 36 (65.4%) are run by organisations, and 22 (40.0%) are of an institute or clinic. Character counts (rho 0.44, p = 0.0006) and videos (likes for ten posts 149 vs. 54, p = 0.006) positively correlate with the number of likes, while hashtag use and post count have no statistical significance with likes. Reels and IgTV videos are infrequently used (18.18%, 3.6%). The rheumatology social media landscape is in its nascency and currently split into educational and broadcasting accounts with a significant overlap between the two. The positive correlation of character counts and videos and the negative correlation of hashtag use and post count with likes lay the case for quality content to improve engagement. Social media editors may ensure quality content for rheumatology education using Instagram. Key Points • The current landscape of Instagram use in rheumatology is limited and largely orientated towards educative content. • Likes on Instagram are positively correlated with caption character counts and videos. • Using currently underutilised tools like videos, engaging captions, and infographics may enhance the utility of Instagram in rheumatology education.

#CoronaVirus and public health: the role of social media in sharing health information

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine how factual information and misinformation are being shared on Twitter by identifying types of social media users who initiate the information diffusion process.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used a mixed methodology approach to analyze tweets with COVID-19-related hashtags. First, a social network analysis was conducted to identify social media users who initiate the information diffusion process, followed by a quantitative content analysis of tweets by users with more than 5K retweets to identify what COVID-19 claims, factual information, misinformation and disinformation was shared on Twitter.

Findings

Results found very little misinformation and disinformation distributed widely. While health experts and journalists shared factual COVID-19-related information, they were not receiving optimum engagement. Tweets by citizens focusing on personal experience or opinions received more retweets and likes compared to any other sender type. Similarly, celebrities received more replies than any other sender type.

Practical implications

This study helps medical experts and government agencies understand the type of COVID-19 content and communication being shared on social media for population health purposes.

Originality/value

This study offers insight into how social media users engage with COVID-19-related information on Twitter and offers a typology of categories of information shared about the pandemic.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2021-0143/.

Bibliometric and Altmetric Analysis of Retracted Articles on COVID-19

BACKGROUND

With greater use of social media platforms for promotions of research articles, retracted articles tend to receive approximately the same attention. We systematically analyzed retracted articles from retractionwatch.com to look at the Altmetric Attention Scores (AAS) garnered over a period of time in order to highlight the role of social media and other platforms in advertising retracted articles and its effect on the spread of misinformation.

METHODS

Retractionwatch.com was searched for coronavirus disease 2019 related retracted papers on November 6th, 2021. Articles were excluded based on lack of digital object identifier (DOI), if they were preprint articles, absent AAS, and incomplete AAS of pre retraction, post retraction, or both scores.

RESULTS

A total of 196 articles were found on the Retraction Watch website of which 189 were retracted papers and 7 were expression of concern (EOC). We then identified 175 articles after excluding those that did not have a DOI and 30 preprint articles were also excluded giving 145 articles. Further exclusion of articles with absent AAS and incomplete AAS resulted in a total of 22 articles.

CONCLUSION

Retracted articles receive significant online attention. Twitter and Mendeley were the most popular medium for publicizing retracted articles, therefore more focus should be given by journals and their Twitter accounts to discredit all their retracted articles. Preprints should be reconsidered as a whole by journals due to the huge risk they carry in disseminating false information.

Uncertainty, shock and anger: Recent loss experiences of first‐wave COVID ‐19 pandemic in Italy

The aim of this study is to explore qualitatively bereavement experiences of family members who have lost a significant other to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) in relation to mourners' needs and resources. Twenty individuals bereaved by the first wave of COVID‐19 from the most heavily impacted Italian region were interviewed via video call between 1 and 3 months after their loss. Through a thematic analysis, four main themes were identified: reconstructions of the loss experience, responses to grief, resources and looking forward. The suddenness of the death and lack of farewell by means of a funeral prevented participants from realizing the loss and undertaking a meaning‐making process. When anger was the main reaction to the loss, mourners focussed all their attention on denouncing medical and government institutions. Acceptance occurred particularly in those who found a way to share their grief and use it as a turning point. Participants relied mainly on informal support offered virtually, but mourners may have sought out in‐person comfort in the long term. The results of this study propose new insights for COVID‐19 bereavement support and trace the path for health promotion within a community shook by a communal grief experience. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement

YoutubeTM for information on pediatric oral health instructions

INTRODUCTION

Parents and caregivers of pediatric patients usually tend to search for health information on social networks and other online platforms. At this point, the quality and reliability of these sources play an essential part in maintaining the oral health of pediatric patients.

AIM

The recent study aimed to analyze the reliability, quality, and content of YouTube^TM videos on pediatric oral health instructions, assess the efficacy of these videos, and help health providers lead the parents accessing accurate information on the subject mentioned.

DESIGN

The searching term was detected as "children oral health" (Google Trends Application). The first 150 videos were taken into the study. Six excluding criteria were used, and 40 videos have lasted for the further examinations. Content headings were determined according to the AAPD guidelines on pediatric oral health. The content analysis scores, reliability scores, and Global Quality Score were calculated for each of these 40 videos. SPSS 26 statistical software was used in the statistical analysis process of the data; p <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

The recent study results showed that according to content analyses, the videos were classified as ''poor'' content with the mean values 4.07 (± 1.32). The mean reliability score 2.96 (± 0.69) has shown that the reliability of the videos was moderate. Mean Global Quality Score values were 2.95 (± 0.73), which means the subjects were moderate quality. The mean reliability of the rich content videos (3.39 ± 0.59) and the Global Quality Score score of them (3.43 ± 0.62) were statistically higher compared to the average values of the poor content videos (respectively; 2.73 ± 0.64; 2.69± 0.66) (p<0.05) The average number of likes, dislikes, length, interaction index and viewing rate of rich content videos were higher than the same features of poor content videos (p<0.05). The videos with rich content were determined in the first 50 videos listed for analyzes, and the distribution of the included videos on the list was equally.

CONCLUSION

The present study concluded that the YouTubeTM videos providing oral health instructions for pediatric patients and their parents had poor content, medium quality, and reliability. Although all the listed content headings were not mentioned in the videos, the content of them still may be useful and educational for individuals. However, dental hygiene practitioners and dentists should be aware of the need in this area and put more effort into improving the YouTube^TM videos on children's oral health in a more detailed way regarding content headings, quality, and reliability.

Evaluation of the Effect Coronavirus Lockdown had on Chronic Disease Management Care in Pediatrics: A Survey of Jordanian Pediatricians

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic puts a great strain on the healthcare system, as the national and global infection rates increased rapidly. Efforts were devoted to minimizing the effects of the spreading pandemic without overwhelming the already stretched healthcare system. The study objective was to establish how coronavirus lockdown was affecting chronic disease care among pediatric patients admitted to hospitals in developing countries. For that purpose, a cross-sectional survey of registered pediatricians was carried out. Findings showed that the mortality rate from COVID-19 in children seemed to be low. However, children with chronic illnesses were likely to be gravely affected by the disturbance of repetitive healthcare services. About 79% of pediatricians treated a child with a chronic condition during the lockdown. Furthermore, 15% of patients with chronic diseases visiting pediatricians exhibited uncontrolled emerging complications. In addition, 9% of pediatricians reported one to five fatalities among children under their care due to delay or lack of appropriate medical care in the period of the lockdown. Residents (48.9%) reported a significantly (p < 0.001) higher proportion of providing face-to-face services compared with consultants (17.9%) and specialists (13.6%). In conclusion, the care of chronically ill children should be taken into consideration when implementing lockdown and/or social distancing, thus minimizing the negative effects of lockdown and/or social distancing on children with chronic diseases.

COVID-19 vaccination in autoimmune disease (COVAD) survey protocol

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to be a cause of unprecedented global morbidity and mortality. Whilst COVID-19 vaccination has emerged as the only tangible solution to reducing poor clinical outcomes, vaccine hesitancy continues to be an obstacle to achieving high levels of vaccine uptake. This represents particular risk to patients with autoimmune diseases, a group already at increased risk of hospitalization and poor clinical outcomes related to COVID-19 infection. Whilst there is a paucity of long-term safety and efficacy data of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with autoimmune diseases, the current evidence strongly suggests that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of adverse effects and disease flares. Herein, we report the protocol of the COVID-19 Vaccination in Autoimmune Diseases (COVAD) study, an ongoing international collaborative study involving 29 countries and over 110 investigators.

Dealing with uncertainty. A qualitative study on the illness' experience in patients with Long-COVID in Italy

BACKGROUND AND GOALS

An unknown proportion of people who had COVID-19 infection continue to experience symptoms such as fatigue, breathlessness, joint or muscle pain, difficulty sleeping, and brain fog. These symptoms have a significant impact on the quality of life. Long-COVID is a new multisystem disease still under investigation. This research aims to explore the illness experienced by patients suffering from Long-COVID in Italy.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

Qualitative methodology with semi-structured interviews. Participants were recruited on the Facebook patient group between October 2021 and January 2022. Participants had been experiencing symptoms for at least three months following confirmed COVID-19 infection. Interviews were conducted by video call, recorded and transcribed with consent. The thematic analysis method has been chosen to infer data from textual material.

RESULTS

17 interviews with women with Long-COVID have been analysed. The main themes include: a total change of life due to the symptomatology, loss of autonomy that affects social, family and professional life; social isolation, a sense of abandonment often increased by stigma, the difficulty of being believed and achieving diagnosis; difficulty in managing symptoms and accessing to care services; living with uncertainty caused by the lack of institutional, social, professional, familial and medical support.  Conclusions: Intervention programs, both institutional and social-health policies should be developed for patients with Long-COVID. The impact of symptoms could be reduced by developing standards and protocols, and by ensuring access to care and to multi-disciplinary rehabilitation. Further development of knowledge on Long-COVID is essential.

The Networked Context of COVID-19 Misinformation: Informational Homogeneity on YouTube at the Beginning of the Pandemic

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the video-sharing platform YouTube has been serving as an essential instrument to widely distribute news related to the global public health crisis and to allow users to discuss the news with each other in the comment sections. Along with these enhanced opportunities of technology-based communication, there is an overabundance of information and, in many cases, misinformation about current events. In times of a pandemic, the spread of misinformation can have direct detrimental effects, potentially influencing citizens' behavioral decisions (e.g., to not socially distance) and putting collective health at risk. Misinformation could be especially harmful if it is distributed in isolated news cocoons that homogeneously provide misinformation in the absence of corrections or mere accurate information. The present study analyzes data gathered at the beginning of the pandemic (January–March 2020) and focuses on the network structure of YouTube videos and their comments to understand the level of informational homogeneity associated with misinformation on COVID-19 and its evolution over time. This study combined machine learning and network analytic approaches. Results indicate that nodes (either individual users or channels) that spread misinformation were usually integrated in heterogeneous discussion networks, predominantly involving content other than misinformation. This pattern remained stable over time. Findings are discussed in light of the COVID-19 “infodemic” and the fragmentation of information networks.

Is YouTubeTM an adequate source of oral hygiene education for orthodontic patients?

INTRODUCTION

The present study aims to assess the quality, reliability and content of the information provided by the YouTube^TM videos on oral hygiene during orthodontic treatment, to reveal the efficacy of the videos for patients and to help dentists who use this platform as a source to guide their patients accurately.

METHOD

In the beginning, it was found that the most common search term on oral hygiene during orthodontic treatment in Google Trends was 'how to clean braces'. A total of 150 videos containing keywords were reviewed, and 56 videos were assessed within the scope of the study. Videos were analysed for reliability score, content analysis and GQS criteria.

RESULTS

According to the results, the mean video length was statistically significantly greater in rich-content videos than in poor-content videos (p = 0.024). In addition, the reliability score of rich-content videos was statistically significantly higher than that of poor-content videos (p = 0.026). Likewise, the GQS of rich-content videos was statistically significantly higher than that of poor-content videos (p < 0.001). However, the number of views, the number of likes, the number of dislikes, the number of comments, the number of days since upload, the interaction index and the view rate did not statistically significantly differ by content categories (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The present study concluded that the YouTube^TM videos providing oral hygiene education for patients receiving or scheduled for orthodontic treatment had poor content and overall medium quality. The instantaneous data collection was one of the study's limitations.

The Impact of Social Media Exposure and Interpersonal Discussion on Intention of COVID-19 Vaccination among Nurses

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among nurses is a global public health concern and it is imperative to understand associated factors. Information environment plays a critical role in shaping health behaviors, while few studies explored such effects in the context of COVID-19 vaccination. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1902 nurses in China. The study investigated the effects of social media exposure/interpersonal discussion on intention of COVID-19 vaccination and tested whether perceived effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines (perceived vaccine efficacy, perceived duration of protection, and perceived effectiveness in preventing resurgences) mediated such associations. Results showed that about 68.0% and 56.5% of the participants had an intention of free and self-paid COVID-19 vaccinations, respectively. Frequent social media exposure and interpersonal discussion were positively associated with vaccination intentions. Perceived vaccine efficacy significantly mediated the effects of frequent social media exposure and interpersonal discussion, whereas perceived effectiveness in preventing resurgences suppressed the effects of frequent social media exposure. In conclusion, the prevalence of intention of COVID-19 vaccination was relatively low among Chinese nurses and health promotion is needed. Frequent social media exposure and interpersonal discussion potentially enhanced vaccination intentions via increased perceived vaccine efficacy. The findings can help inform the development of relevant health communication interventions.

Social Media as Source of Information, Stress Symptoms, and Burden Caused by Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Abstract. This cross-national study investigated the extent of social media use (SMU) as a source of information about COVID-19, and its relationship with the experienced burden caused by the pandemic. Representative data from eight countries (France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the UK, the USA) were collected online (end of May to the beginning of June 2020). Of the overall 8,302 participants, 48.1% frequently used social media (SM) as a COVID-19 information source (range: 31.8% in Germany, to 65.4% in Poland). In the overall samples and in all country-specific samples, regression analyses revealed the experienced burden caused by COVID-19 to be positively associated with SMU and stress symptoms. Furthermore, stress symptoms partly mediated the relationship between SMU and the burden. The results emphasize the significant association between the use of SM as a source of information, individual emotional state, and behavior during the pandemic, as well as the significance of conscious and accurate use of SM specifically during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The application of WhatsApp to support online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia

The current study aimed to evaluate university students' technological acceptance and connectedness to online learning with WhatsApp support. A total of 202 students from three different courses at an Indonesian private university participated in an online survey. Quantitative data analyses using Rasch modelling technique were conducted to evaluate the survey data. Findings show that most students accepted social media use to support learning and felt connected to the learning. The findings also have identified several drivers that promoted the high level of acceptance and connectedness to learning, such as students' perceived usefulness, availability of learning support, motivation, and connectedness with their friends. Implications for further research and practices of WhatsApp usage to support online learning are discussed.