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Klein AZ, Gutiérrez Gómez JA, Levine LD, Gonzalez-Hernandez G. Using Longitudinal Twitter Data for Digital Epidemiology of Childhood Health Outcomes: An Annotated Data Set and Deep Neural Network Classifiers. J Med Internet Res 2024; 26:e50652. [PMID: 38526542 PMCID: PMC11002733 DOI: 10.2196/50652] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2023] [Revised: 09/05/2023] [Accepted: 09/19/2023] [Indexed: 03/26/2024] Open
Abstract
We manually annotated 9734 tweets that were posted by users who reported their pregnancy on Twitter, and used them to train, evaluate, and deploy deep neural network classifiers (F1-score=0.93) to detect tweets that report having a child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (678 users), autism spectrum disorders (1744 users), delayed speech (902 users), or asthma (1255 users), demonstrating the potential of Twitter as a complementary resource for assessing associations between pregnancy exposures and childhood health outcomes on a large scale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ari Z Klein
- Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | | | - Lisa D Levine
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
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Jaiswal A, Washington P. Using #ActuallyAutistic on Twitter for Precision Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder: Machine Learning Study. JMIR Form Res 2024; 8:e52660. [PMID: 38354045 PMCID: PMC10902768 DOI: 10.2196/52660] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2023] [Revised: 11/19/2023] [Accepted: 12/10/2023] [Indexed: 03/02/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The increasing use of social media platforms has given rise to an unprecedented surge in user-generated content, with millions of individuals publicly sharing their thoughts, experiences, and health-related information. Social media can serve as a useful means to study and understand public health. Twitter (subsequently rebranded as "X") is one such social media platform that has proven to be a valuable source of rich information for both the general public and health officials. We conducted the first study applying Twitter data mining to autism screening. OBJECTIVE This study used Twitter as the primary source of data to study the behavioral characteristics and real-time emotional projections of individuals identifying with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We aimed to improve the rigor of ASD analytics research by using the digital footprint of an individual to study the linguistic patterns of individuals with ASD. METHODS We developed a machine learning model to distinguish individuals with autism from their neurotypical peers based on the textual patterns from their public communications on Twitter. We collected 6,515,470 tweets from users' self-identification with autism using "#ActuallyAutistic" and a separate control group to identify linguistic markers associated with ASD traits. To construct the data set, we targeted English-language tweets using the search query "#ActuallyAutistic" posted from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2022. From these tweets, we identified unique users who used keywords such as "autism" OR "autistic" OR "neurodiverse" in their profile description and collected all the tweets from their timeline. To build the control group data set, we formulated a search query excluding the hashtag, "-#ActuallyAutistic," and collected 1000 tweets per day during the same time period. We trained a word2vec model and an attention-based, bidirectional long short-term memory model to validate the performance of per-tweet and per-profile classification models. We also illustrate the utility of the data set through common natural language processing tasks such as sentiment analysis and topic modeling. RESULTS Our tweet classifier reached a 73% accuracy, a 0.728 area under the receiver operating characteristic curve score, and an 0.71 F1-score using word2vec representations fed into a logistic regression model, while the user profile classifier achieved an 0.78 area under the receiver operating characteristic curve score and an F1-score of 0.805 using an attention-based, bidirectional long short-term memory model. This is a promising start, demonstrating the potential for effective digital phenotyping studies and large-scale intervention using text data mined from social media. CONCLUSIONS Textual differences in social media communications can help researchers and clinicians conduct symptomatology studies in natural settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aditi Jaiswal
- Department of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, United States
| | - Peter Washington
- Department of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, United States
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3
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Aghakhani S, Carre N, Mostovoy K, Shafer R, Baeza-Hernandez K, Entenberg G, Testerman A, Bunge EL. Qualitative analysis of mental health conversational agents messages about autism spectrum disorder: a call for action. Front Digit Health 2023; 5:1251016. [PMID: 38116099 PMCID: PMC10728644 DOI: 10.3389/fdgth.2023.1251016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Accepted: 11/20/2023] [Indexed: 12/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Conversational agents (CA's) have shown promise in increasing accessibility to mental health resources. This study aimed to identify common themes of messages sent to a mental health CA (Wysa) related to ASD by general users and users that identify as having ASD. Methods This study utilized retrospective data. Two thematic analyses were conducted, one focusing on user messages including the keywords (e.g., ASD, autism, Asperger), and the second one with messages from users who self-identified as having ASD. Results For the sample of general users, the most frequent themes were "others having ASD," "ASD diagnosis," and "seeking help." For the users that self-identified as having ASD (n = 277), the most frequent themes were "ASD diagnosis or symptoms," "negative reaction from others," and "positive comments." There were 3,725 emotion words mentioned by users who self-identified as having ASD. The majority had negative valence (80.3%), and few were positive (14.8%) or ambivalent (4.9%). Conclusion Users shared their experiences and emotions surrounding ASD with a mental health CA. Users asked about the ASD diagnosis, sought help, and reported negative reactions from others. CA's have the potential to become a source of support for those interested in ASD and/or identify as having ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- S. Aghakhani
- Department of Psychology, Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA, United States
| | - N. Carre
- Department of Psychology, Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA, United States
| | - K. Mostovoy
- Department of Psychology, Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA, United States
| | - R. Shafer
- Department of Psychology, Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA, United States
| | - K. Baeza-Hernandez
- Department of Psychology, Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA, United States
| | | | - A. Testerman
- Department of Psychology, Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA, United States
| | - E. L. Bunge
- Department of Psychology, Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA, United States
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Quiroga Gutierrez AC, Lindegger DJ, Taji Heravi A, Stojanov T, Sykora M, Elayan S, Mooney SJ, Naslund JA, Fadda M, Gruebner O. Reproducibility and Scientific Integrity of Big Data Research in Urban Public Health and Digital Epidemiology: A Call to Action. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2023; 20:1473. [PMID: 36674225 PMCID: PMC9861515 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20021473] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2022] [Revised: 12/31/2022] [Accepted: 01/11/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
The emergence of big data science presents a unique opportunity to improve public-health research practices. Because working with big data is inherently complex, big data research must be clear and transparent to avoid reproducibility issues and positively impact population health. Timely implementation of solution-focused approaches is critical as new data sources and methods take root in public-health research, including urban public health and digital epidemiology. This commentary highlights methodological and analytic approaches that can reduce research waste and improve the reproducibility and replicability of big data research in public health. The recommendations described in this commentary, including a focus on practices, publication norms, and education, are neither exhaustive nor unique to big data, but, nonetheless, implementing them can broadly improve public-health research. Clearly defined and openly shared guidelines will not only improve the quality of current research practices but also initiate change at multiple levels: the individual level, the institutional level, and the international level.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Ala Taji Heravi
- CLEAR Methods Center, Department of Clinical Research, Division of Clinical Epidemiology, University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, 4031 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Thomas Stojanov
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology, University Hospital of Basel, 4031 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Martin Sykora
- School of Business and Economics, Centre for Information Management, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK
| | - Suzanne Elayan
- School of Business and Economics, Centre for Information Management, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK
| | - Stephen J. Mooney
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - John A. Naslund
- Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Marta Fadda
- Institute of Public Health, Università Della Svizzera Italiana, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
| | - Oliver Gruebner
- Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zurich, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
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Harvey PD, Depp CA, Rizzo AA, Strauss GP, Spelber D, Carpenter LL, Kalin NH, Krystal JH, McDonald WM, Nemeroff CB, Rodriguez CI, Widge AS, Torous J. Technology and Mental Health: State of the Art for Assessment and Treatment. Am J Psychiatry 2022; 179:897-914. [PMID: 36200275 DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.21121254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Technology is ubiquitous in society and is now being extensively used in mental health applications. Both assessment and treatment strategies are being developed and deployed at a rapid pace. The authors review the current domains of technology utilization, describe standards for quality evaluation, and forecast future developments. This review examines technology-based assessments of cognition, emotion, functional capacity and everyday functioning, virtual reality approaches to assessment and treatment, ecological momentary assessment, passive measurement strategies including geolocation, movement, and physiological parameters, and technology-based cognitive and functional skills training. There are many technology-based approaches that are evidence based and are supported through the results of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Other strategies are less well supported by high-quality evidence at present, but there are evaluation standards that are well articulated at this time. There are some clear challenges in selection of applications for specific conditions, but in several areas, including cognitive training, randomized clinical trials are available to support these interventions. Some of these technology-based interventions have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug administration, which has clear standards for which types of applications, and which claims about them, need to be reviewed by the agency and which are exempt.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip D Harvey
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, and Miami VA Medical Center (Harvey); Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego Medical Center, La Jolla (Depp); USC Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Rizzo); Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens (Strauss); Department of Psychiatry, Dell Medical Center, University of Texas at Austin (Spelber, Nemeroff); Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Carpenter); Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison (Kalin); Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. (Krystal); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta (McDonald); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto (Rodriguez); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medical Discovery Team-Addictions, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Widge); Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston (Torous)
| | - Colin A Depp
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, and Miami VA Medical Center (Harvey); Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego Medical Center, La Jolla (Depp); USC Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Rizzo); Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens (Strauss); Department of Psychiatry, Dell Medical Center, University of Texas at Austin (Spelber, Nemeroff); Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Carpenter); Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison (Kalin); Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. (Krystal); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta (McDonald); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto (Rodriguez); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medical Discovery Team-Addictions, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Widge); Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston (Torous)
| | - Albert A Rizzo
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, and Miami VA Medical Center (Harvey); Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego Medical Center, La Jolla (Depp); USC Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Rizzo); Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens (Strauss); Department of Psychiatry, Dell Medical Center, University of Texas at Austin (Spelber, Nemeroff); Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Carpenter); Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison (Kalin); Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. (Krystal); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta (McDonald); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto (Rodriguez); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medical Discovery Team-Addictions, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Widge); Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston (Torous)
| | - Gregory P Strauss
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, and Miami VA Medical Center (Harvey); Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego Medical Center, La Jolla (Depp); USC Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Rizzo); Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens (Strauss); Department of Psychiatry, Dell Medical Center, University of Texas at Austin (Spelber, Nemeroff); Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Carpenter); Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison (Kalin); Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. (Krystal); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta (McDonald); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto (Rodriguez); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medical Discovery Team-Addictions, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Widge); Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston (Torous)
| | - David Spelber
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, and Miami VA Medical Center (Harvey); Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego Medical Center, La Jolla (Depp); USC Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Rizzo); Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens (Strauss); Department of Psychiatry, Dell Medical Center, University of Texas at Austin (Spelber, Nemeroff); Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Carpenter); Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison (Kalin); Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. (Krystal); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta (McDonald); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto (Rodriguez); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medical Discovery Team-Addictions, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Widge); Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston (Torous)
| | - Linda L Carpenter
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, and Miami VA Medical Center (Harvey); Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego Medical Center, La Jolla (Depp); USC Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Rizzo); Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens (Strauss); Department of Psychiatry, Dell Medical Center, University of Texas at Austin (Spelber, Nemeroff); Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Carpenter); Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison (Kalin); Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. (Krystal); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta (McDonald); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto (Rodriguez); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medical Discovery Team-Addictions, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Widge); Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston (Torous)
| | - Ned H Kalin
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, and Miami VA Medical Center (Harvey); Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego Medical Center, La Jolla (Depp); USC Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Rizzo); Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens (Strauss); Department of Psychiatry, Dell Medical Center, University of Texas at Austin (Spelber, Nemeroff); Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Carpenter); Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison (Kalin); Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. (Krystal); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta (McDonald); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto (Rodriguez); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medical Discovery Team-Addictions, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Widge); Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston (Torous)
| | - John H Krystal
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, and Miami VA Medical Center (Harvey); Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego Medical Center, La Jolla (Depp); USC Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Rizzo); Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens (Strauss); Department of Psychiatry, Dell Medical Center, University of Texas at Austin (Spelber, Nemeroff); Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Carpenter); Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison (Kalin); Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. (Krystal); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta (McDonald); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto (Rodriguez); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medical Discovery Team-Addictions, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Widge); Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston (Torous)
| | - William M McDonald
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, and Miami VA Medical Center (Harvey); Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego Medical Center, La Jolla (Depp); USC Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Rizzo); Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens (Strauss); Department of Psychiatry, Dell Medical Center, University of Texas at Austin (Spelber, Nemeroff); Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Carpenter); Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison (Kalin); Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. (Krystal); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta (McDonald); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto (Rodriguez); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medical Discovery Team-Addictions, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Widge); Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston (Torous)
| | - Charles B Nemeroff
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, and Miami VA Medical Center (Harvey); Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego Medical Center, La Jolla (Depp); USC Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Rizzo); Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens (Strauss); Department of Psychiatry, Dell Medical Center, University of Texas at Austin (Spelber, Nemeroff); Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Carpenter); Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison (Kalin); Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. (Krystal); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta (McDonald); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto (Rodriguez); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medical Discovery Team-Addictions, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Widge); Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston (Torous)
| | - Carolyn I Rodriguez
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, and Miami VA Medical Center (Harvey); Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego Medical Center, La Jolla (Depp); USC Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Rizzo); Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens (Strauss); Department of Psychiatry, Dell Medical Center, University of Texas at Austin (Spelber, Nemeroff); Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Carpenter); Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison (Kalin); Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. (Krystal); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta (McDonald); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto (Rodriguez); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medical Discovery Team-Addictions, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Widge); Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston (Torous)
| | - Alik S Widge
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, and Miami VA Medical Center (Harvey); Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego Medical Center, La Jolla (Depp); USC Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Rizzo); Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens (Strauss); Department of Psychiatry, Dell Medical Center, University of Texas at Austin (Spelber, Nemeroff); Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Carpenter); Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison (Kalin); Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. (Krystal); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta (McDonald); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto (Rodriguez); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medical Discovery Team-Addictions, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Widge); Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston (Torous)
| | - John Torous
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, and Miami VA Medical Center (Harvey); Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego Medical Center, La Jolla (Depp); USC Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Rizzo); Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens (Strauss); Department of Psychiatry, Dell Medical Center, University of Texas at Austin (Spelber, Nemeroff); Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, R.I. (Carpenter); Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison (Kalin); Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. (Krystal); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta (McDonald); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford; Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto (Rodriguez); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medical Discovery Team-Addictions, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Widge); Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston (Torous)
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Potier R. Revue critique sur le potentiel du numérique dans la recherche en psychopathologie : un point de vue psychanalytique. L'ÉVOLUTION PSYCHIATRIQUE 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evopsy.2022.09.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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7
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Gauld C, Maquet J, Micoulaud-Franchi JA, Dumas G. Popular and Scientific Discourse on Autism: Representational Cross-Cultural Analysis of Epistemic Communities to Inform Policy and Practice. J Med Internet Res 2022; 24:e32912. [PMID: 35704359 PMCID: PMC9244652 DOI: 10.2196/32912] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2021] [Revised: 03/25/2022] [Accepted: 04/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Social media provide a window onto the circulation of ideas in everyday folk psychiatry, revealing the themes and issues discussed both by the public and by various scientific communities. Objective This study explores the trends in health information about autism spectrum disorder within popular and scientific communities through the systematic semantic exploration of big data gathered from Twitter and PubMed. Methods First, we performed a natural language processing by text-mining analysis and with unsupervised (machine learning) topic modeling on a sample of the last 10,000 tweets in English posted with the term #autism (January 2021). We built a network of words to visualize the main dimensions representing these data. Second, we performed precisely the same analysis with all the articles using the term “autism” in PubMed without time restriction. Lastly, we compared the results of the 2 databases. Results We retrieved 121,556 terms related to autism in 10,000 tweets and 5.7x109 terms in 57,121 biomedical scientific articles. The 4 main dimensions extracted from Twitter were as follows: integration and social support, understanding and mental health, child welfare, and daily challenges and difficulties. The 4 main dimensions extracted from PubMed were as follows: diagnostic and skills, research challenges, clinical and therapeutical challenges, and neuropsychology and behavior. Conclusions This study provides the first systematic and rigorous comparison between 2 corpora of interests, in terms of lay representations and scientific research, regarding the significant increase in information available on autism spectrum disorder and of the difficulty to connect fragments of knowledge from the general population. The results suggest a clear distinction between the focus of topics used in the social media and that of scientific communities. This distinction highlights the importance of knowledge mobilization and exchange to better align research priorities with personal concerns and to address dimensions of well-being, adaptation, and resilience. Health care professionals and researchers can use these dimensions as a framework in their consultations to engage in discussions on issues that matter to beneficiaries and develop clinical approaches and research policies in line with these interests. Finally, our study can inform policy makers on the health and social needs and concerns of individuals with autism and their caregivers, especially to define health indicators based on important issues for beneficiaries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christophe Gauld
- Department of Child Psychiatry, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Julien Maquet
- Department of Internal Medicine, Toulouse University, Toulouse, France
| | | | - Guillaume Dumas
- Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, United States.,Center of Research, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte Justine, Montréal, QC, Canada
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8
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Wesson P, Hswen Y, Valdes G, Stojanovski K, Handley MA. Risks and Opportunities to Ensure Equity in the Application of Big Data Research in Public Health. Annu Rev Public Health 2022; 43:59-78. [PMID: 34871504 PMCID: PMC8983486 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-051920-110928] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The big data revolution presents an exciting frontier to expand public health research, broadening the scope of research and increasing the precision of answers. Despite these advances, scientists must be vigilant against also advancing potential harms toward marginalized communities. In this review, we provide examples in which big data applications have (unintentionally) perpetuated discriminatory practices, while also highlighting opportunities for big data applications to advance equity in public health. Here, big data is framed in the context of the five Vs (volume, velocity, veracity, variety, and value), and we propose a sixth V, virtuosity, which incorporates equity and justice frameworks. Analytic approaches to improving equity are presented using social computational big data, fairness in machine learning algorithms, medical claims data, and data augmentation as illustrations. Throughout, we emphasize the biasing influence of data absenteeism and positionality and conclude with recommendations for incorporating an equity lens into big data research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Wesson
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA;
- Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Yulin Hswen
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA;
- Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Gilmer Valdes
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA;
- Department of Radiation Oncology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Kristefer Stojanovski
- Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
- Department of Social, Behavioral and Population Sciences, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
| | - Margaret A Handley
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA;
- Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
- Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, San Francisco, California, USA
- Partnerships for Research in Implementation Science for Equity (PRISE), University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
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9
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Kelley SW, Mhaonaigh CN, Burke L, Whelan R, Gillan CM. Machine learning of language use on Twitter reveals weak and non-specific predictions. NPJ Digit Med 2022; 5:35. [PMID: 35338248 PMCID: PMC8956571 DOI: 10.1038/s41746-022-00576-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2021] [Accepted: 02/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Depressed individuals use language differently than healthy controls and it has been proposed that social media posts can be used to identify depression. Much of the evidence behind this claim relies on indirect measures of mental health and few studies have tested if these language features are specific to depression versus other aspects of mental health. We analysed the Tweets of 1006 participants who completed questionnaires assessing symptoms of depression and 8 other mental health conditions. Daily Tweets were subjected to textual analysis and the resulting linguistic features were used to train an Elastic Net model on depression severity, using nested cross-validation. We then tested performance in a held-out test set (30%), comparing predictions of depression versus 8 other aspects of mental health. The depression trained model had modest out-of-sample predictive performance, explaining 2.5% of variance in depression symptoms (R2 = 0.025, r = 0.16). The performance of this model was as-good or superior when used to identify other aspects of mental health: schizotypy, social anxiety, eating disorders, generalised anxiety, above chance for obsessive-compulsive disorder, apathy, but not significant for alcohol abuse or impulsivity. Machine learning analysis of social media data, when trained on well-validated clinical instruments, could not make meaningful individualised predictions regarding users’ mental health. Furthermore, language use associated with depression was non-specific, having similar performance in predicting other mental health problems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sean W Kelley
- School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. .,Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
| | | | - Louise Burke
- School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Robert Whelan
- School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.,Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.,Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Claire M Gillan
- School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.,Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.,Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
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10
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Yu H, Yang CC, Yu P, Liu K. Emotion diffusion effect: Negative sentiment COVID-19 tweets of public organizations attract more responses from followers. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0264794. [PMID: 35259181 PMCID: PMC8903302 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264794] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2021] [Accepted: 02/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has triggered an enormous number of discussion topics on social media Twitter. It has an impact on the global health system and citizen responses to the pandemic. Multiple responses (replies, favorites, and retweets) reflect the followers’ attitudes and emotions towards these tweets. Twitter data such as these have inspired substantial research interest in sentiment and social trend analyses. To date, studies on Twitter data have focused on the associational relationships between variables in a population. There is a need for further discovery of causality, such as the influence of sentiment polarity of tweet response on further discussion topics. These topics often reflect the human perception of COVID-19. This study addresses this exact topic. It aims to develop a new method to unveil the causal relationships between the sentiment polarity and responses in social media data. We employed sentiment polarity, i.e., positive or negative sentiment, as the treatment variable in this quasi-experimental study. The data is the tweets posted by nine authoritative public organizations in four countries and the World Health Organization from December 1, 2019, to May 10, 2020. Employing the inverse probability weighting model, we identified the treatment effect of sentiment polarity on the multiple responses of tweets. The topics with negative sentiment polarity on COVID-19 attracted significantly more replies (69±49) and favorites (688±677) than the positive tweets. However, no significant difference in the number of retweets was found between the negative and positive tweets. This study contributes a new method for social media analysis. It generates new insight into the influence of sentiment polarity of tweets about COVID-19 on tweet responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haiyan Yu
- Center for Data and Decision Sciences, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing, China
| | - Ching-Chi Yang
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Ping Yu
- School of Computing & Information Technology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia
| | - Ke Liu
- Center for Data and Decision Sciences, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing, China
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11
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Viviani M, Crocamo C, Mazzola M, Bartoli F, Carrà G, Pasi G. Assessing vulnerability to psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic through the analysis of microblogging content. FUTURE GENERATIONS COMPUTER SYSTEMS : FGCS 2021; 125:446-459. [PMID: 34934256 PMCID: PMC8678930 DOI: 10.1016/j.future.2021.06.044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2021] [Revised: 06/08/2021] [Accepted: 06/18/2021] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
In recent years we have witnessed a growing interest in the analysis of social media data under different perspectives, since these online platforms have become the preferred tool for generating and sharing content across different users organized into virtual communities, based on their common interests, needs, and perceptions. In the current study, by considering a collection of social textual contents related to COVID-19 gathered on the Twitter microblogging platform in the period between August and December 2020, we aimed at evaluating the possible effects of some critical factors related to the pandemic on the mental well-being of the population. In particular, we aimed at investigating potential lexicon identifiers of vulnerability to psychological distress in digital social interactions with respect to distinct COVID-related scenarios, which could be "at risk" from a psychological discomfort point of view. Such scenarios have been associated with peculiar topics discussed on Twitter. For this purpose, two approaches based on a "top-down" and a "bottom-up" strategy were adopted. In the top-down approach, three potential scenarios were initially selected by medical experts, and associated with topics extracted from the Twitter dataset in a hybrid unsupervised-supervised way. On the other hand, in the bottom-up approach, three topics were extracted in a totally unsupervised way capitalizing on a Twitter dataset filtered according to the presence of keywords related to vulnerability to psychological distress, and associated with at-risk scenarios. The identification of such scenarios with both approaches made it possible to capture and analyze the potential psychological vulnerability in critical situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Viviani
- Department of Informatics, Systems, and Communication (DISCo), University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Cristina Crocamo
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Monza, Italy
| | - Matteo Mazzola
- Department of Informatics, Systems, and Communication (DISCo), University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Francesco Bartoli
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Monza, Italy
- Department of Mental Health & Addiction, ASST Nord Milano, Bassini Hospital, Cinisello Balsamo, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Carrà
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Monza, Italy
- Department of Mental Health & Addiction, ASST Nord Milano, Bassini Hospital, Cinisello Balsamo, Italy
- Division of Psychiatry, University College London (UCL), London, UK
| | - Gabriella Pasi
- Department of Informatics, Systems, and Communication (DISCo), University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
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12
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Aggregating Twitter Text through Generalized Linear Regression Models for Tweet Popularity Prediction and Automatic Topic Classification. Eur J Investig Health Psychol Educ 2021; 11:1537-1554. [PMID: 34940387 PMCID: PMC8700529 DOI: 10.3390/ejihpe11040109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2021] [Revised: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 11/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Social media platforms have become accessible resources for health data analysis. However, the advanced computational techniques involved in big data text mining and analysis are challenging for public health data analysts to apply. This study proposes and explores the feasibility of a novel yet straightforward method by regressing the outcome of interest on the aggregated influence scores for association and/or classification analyses based on generalized linear models. The method reduces the document term matrix by transforming text data into a continuous summary score, thereby reducing the data dimension substantially and easing the data sparsity issue of the term matrix. To illustrate the proposed method in detailed steps, we used three Twitter datasets on various topics: autism spectrum disorder, influenza, and violence against women. We found that our results were generally consistent with the critical factors associated with the specific public health topic in the existing literature. The proposed method could also classify tweets into different topic groups appropriately with consistent performance compared with existing text mining methods for automatic classification based on tweet contents.
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13
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Eysenbach G, Angyan P, Le N, Buchanan TA. Using Patient-Generated Health Data From Twitter to Identify, Engage, and Recruit Cancer Survivors in Clinical Trials in Los Angeles County: Evaluation of a Feasibility Study. JMIR Form Res 2021; 5:e29958. [PMID: 34842538 PMCID: PMC8665395 DOI: 10.2196/29958] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2021] [Revised: 08/07/2021] [Accepted: 09/20/2021] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Failure to find and attract clinical trial participants remains a persistent barrier to clinical research. Researchers increasingly complement recruitment methods with social media-based methods. We hypothesized that user-generated data from cancer survivors and their family members and friends on the social network Twitter could be used to identify, engage, and recruit cancer survivors for cancer trials. OBJECTIVE This pilot study aims to examine the feasibility of using user-reported health data from cancer survivors and family members and friends on Twitter in Los Angeles (LA) County to enhance clinical trial recruitment. We focus on 6 cancer conditions (breast cancer, colon cancer, kidney cancer, lymphoma, lung cancer, and prostate cancer). METHODS The social media intervention involved monitoring cancer-specific posts about the 6 cancer conditions by Twitter users in LA County to identify cancer survivors and their family members and friends and contacting eligible Twitter users with information about open cancer trials at the University of Southern California (USC) Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. We reviewed both retrospective and prospective data published by Twitter users in LA County between July 28, 2017, and November 29, 2018. The study enrolled 124 open clinical trials at USC Norris. We used descriptive statistics to report the proportion of Twitter users who were identified, engaged, and enrolled. RESULTS We analyzed 107,424 Twitter posts in English by 25,032 unique Twitter users in LA County for the 6 cancer conditions. We identified and contacted 1.73% (434/25,032) of eligible Twitter users (127/434, 29.3% cancer survivors; 305/434, 70.3% family members and friends; and 2/434, 0.5% Twitter users were excluded). Of them, 51.4% (223/434) were female and approximately one-third were male. About one-fifth were people of color, whereas most of them were White. Approximately one-fifth (85/434, 19.6%) engaged with the outreach messages (cancer survivors: 33/85, 38% and family members and friends: 52/85, 61%). Of those who engaged with the messages, one-fourth were male, the majority were female, and approximately one-fifth were people of color, whereas the majority were White. Approximately 12% (10/85) of the contacted users requested more information and 40% (4/10) set up a prescreening. Two eligible candidates were transferred to USC Norris for further screening, but neither was enrolled. CONCLUSIONS Our findings demonstrate the potential of identifying and engaging cancer survivors and their family members and friends on Twitter. Optimization of downstream recruitment efforts such as screening for digital populations on social media may be required. Future research could test the feasibility of the approach for other diseases, locations, languages, social media platforms, and types of research involvement (eg, survey research). Computer science methods could help to scale up the analysis of larger data sets to support more rigorous testing of the intervention. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03408561; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03408561.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Praveen Angyan
- Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - NamQuyen Le
- USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Thomas A Buchanan
- Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States.,Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
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14
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Abstract
LEARNING OBJECTIVES After participating in this activity, learners should be better able to:• Outline and discuss strategies to mitigate problematic social media use in psychiatric disorders• Identify solutions to encourage healthy use. ABSTRACT Social media has been found to contribute to a variety of different psychiatric disorders, with recent research showing a complex relationship between social media use and mental health outcomes. This article outlines how the strategies that social media sites utilize to increase user engagement can differentially affect individuals with psychiatric disorders, and proposes solutions that may promote more healthy use. With these aims in view, the article (1) delineates the strategies, often unrecognized, that social media sites use to increase user engagement, (2) highlights how these strategies can affect individuals with psychiatric disorders, and (3) proposes novel solutions to encourage healthy use. The first step to creating innovative and universal interventions is to understand the challenges faced by individuals with psychiatric disorders when using social media.
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15
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Koss J, Rheinlaender A, Truebel H, Bohnet-Joschko S. Social media mining in drug development-Fundamentals and use cases. Drug Discov Today 2021; 26:2871-2880. [PMID: 34481080 DOI: 10.1016/j.drudis.2021.08.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2021] [Revised: 06/03/2021] [Accepted: 08/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
The incorporation of patients' perspectives into drug discovery and development has become critically important from the viewpoint of accounting for modern-day business dynamics. There is a trend among patients to narrate their disease experiences on social media. The insights gained by analyzing the data pertaining to such social-media posts could be leveraged to support patient-centered drug development. Manual analysis of these data is nearly impossible, but artificial intelligence enables automated and cost-effective processing, also referred as social media mining (SMM). This paper discusses the fundamental SMM methods along with several relevant drug-development use cases.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Hubert Truebel
- Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany; AiCuris AG, Wuppertal, Germany
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16
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Prakash J, Chaudhury S, Chatterjee K. Digital phenotyping in psychiatry: When mental health goes binary. Ind Psychiatry J 2021; 30:191-192. [PMID: 35017799 PMCID: PMC8709510 DOI: 10.4103/ipj.ipj_223_21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2021] [Revised: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 11/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/04/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Jyoti Prakash
- Department of Psychiatry, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, Maharashtra, India
| | - Suprakash Chaudhury
- Department of Psychiatry, Dr. D. Y. Patil Medical College, Pune, Maharashtra, India
| | - Kaushik Chatterjee
- Department of Psychiatry, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, Maharashtra, India
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17
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Thorpe Huerta D, Hawkins JB, Brownstein JS, Hswen Y. Exploring discussions of health and risk and public sentiment in Massachusetts during COVID-19 pandemic mandate implementation: A Twitter analysis. SSM Popul Health 2021; 15:100851. [PMID: 34355055 PMCID: PMC8325089 DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100851] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2021] [Revised: 06/17/2021] [Accepted: 06/17/2021] [Indexed: 11/04/2022] Open
Abstract
As policies are adjusted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic according to public health best practices, there is a need to balance the importance of social distancing in preventing viral spread with the strain that these governmental public safety mandates put on public mental health. Thus, there is need for continuous observation of public sentiment and deliberation to inform further adaptation of mandated interventions. In this study, we explore how public response may be reflected in Massachusetts (MA) via social media by specifically exploring temporal patterns in Twitter posts (tweets) regarding sentiment and discussion of topics. We employ interrupted time series centered on (1) Massachusetts State of Emergency declaration (March 10), (2) US State of Emergency declaration (March 13) and (3) Massachusetts public school closure (March 17) to explore changes in tweet sentiment polarity (net negative/positive), expressed anxiety and discussion on risk and health topics on a random subset of all tweets coded within Massachusetts and published from January 1 to May 15, 2020 (n = 2.8 million). We find significant differences between tweets published before and after mandate enforcement for Massachusetts State of Emergency (increased discussion of risk and health, decreased polarity and increased anxiety expression), US State of Emergency (increased discussion of risk and health, and increased anxiety expression) and Massachusetts public school closure (increased discussion of risk and decreased polarity). Our work further validates that Twitter data is a reasonable way to monitor public sentiment and discourse within a crisis, especially in conjunction with other observation data. Twitter can be used to track the emotions of the public during times of crises. During COVID-19 shelter-in-place an increase in discussions about risk and health, and anxiety levels was seen on Twitter. Real-time information from Twitter may be used to make quick evidence-based decisions based on public reactions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jared B Hawkins
- Boston Children's Hospital Computational Epidemiology Lab, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - John S Brownstein
- Harvard Medical School Department of Biomedical Informatics, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.,Boston Children's Hospital Computational Epidemiology Lab, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Yulin Hswen
- University of California, San Francisco, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA.,University of California, San Francisco, Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA
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18
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Eysenbach G, Venuturupalli S, Reuter K. Expressed Symptoms and Attitudes Toward Using Twitter for Health Care Engagement Among Patients With Lupus on Social Media: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study. JMIR Res Protoc 2021; 10:e15716. [PMID: 33955845 PMCID: PMC8138711 DOI: 10.2196/15716] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2019] [Revised: 11/28/2019] [Accepted: 02/04/2020] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Lupus is a complex autoimmune disease that is difficult to diagnose and treat. It is estimated that at least 5 million Americans have lupus, with more than 16,000 new cases of lupus being reported annually in the United States. Social media provides a platform for patients to find rheumatologists and peers and build awareness of the condition. Researchers have suggested that the social network Twitter may serve as a rich avenue for exploring how patients communicate about their health issues. However, there is a lack of research about the characteristics of lupus patients on Twitter and their attitudes toward using Twitter for engaging them with their health care. OBJECTIVE This study has two objectives: (1) to conduct a content analysis of Twitter data published by users (in English) in the United States between September 1, 2017 and October 31, 2018 to identify patients who publicly discuss their lupus condition and to assess their expressed health themes and (2) to conduct a cross-sectional survey among these lupus patients on Twitter to study their attitudes toward using Twitter for engaging them with their health care. METHODS This is a mixed methods study that analyzes retrospective Twitter data and conducts a cross-sectional survey among lupus patients on Twitter. We used Symplur Signals, a health care social media analytics platform, to access the Twitter data and analyze user-generated posts that include keywords related to lupus. We will use descriptive statistics to analyze the data and identify the most prevalent topics in the Twitter content among lupus patients. We will further conduct self-report surveys via Twitter by inviting all identified lupus patients who discuss their lupus condition on Twitter. The goal of the survey is to collect data about the characteristics of lupus patients (eg, gender, race/ethnicity, educational level) and their attitudes toward using Twitter for engaging them with their health care. RESULTS This study has been funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Science through a Clinical and Translational Science Award. The institutional review board at the University of Southern California (HS-19-00048) approved the study. Data extraction and cleaning are complete. We obtained 47,715 Twitter posts containing terms related to "lupus" from users in the United States published in English between September 1, 2017 and October 31, 2018. We included 40,885 posts in the analysis. Data analysis was completed in Fall 2020. CONCLUSIONS The data obtained in this pilot study will shed light on whether Twitter provides a promising data source for garnering health-related attitudes among lupus patients. The data will also help to determine whether Twitter might serve as a potential outreach platform for raising awareness of lupus among patients and implementing related health education interventions. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/15716.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Swamy Venuturupalli
- Division of Rheumatology, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Katja Reuter
- Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, United States.,Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
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19
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Hassrick EM, Holmes LG, Sosnowy C, Walton J, Carley K. Benefits and Risks: A Systematic Review of Information and Communication Technology Use by Autistic People. AUTISM IN ADULTHOOD 2021; 3:72-84. [PMID: 36601264 PMCID: PMC8992882 DOI: 10.1089/aut.2020.0048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Background Communication via the internet is a regular feature of everyday interactions for most people, including autistic people. Researchers have investigated how autistic people use information and communication technology (ICT) since the early 2000s. However, no systematic review has been conducted to summarize findings. Objective This study aims to review existing evidence presented by studies about how autistic people use ICT to communicate and provide a framework for understanding contributions, gaps, and opportunities for this literature. Methods Guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses(PRISMA) statement, we conducted a comprehensive review across five databases, searching for studies investigating how autistic youth and adults use ICT to communicate. Authors reviewed the articles for inclusion and assessed methodological quality. Results Thirty-two studies met the eligibility criteria, including 19 quantitative studies, 12 qualitative studies, and 1 mixed methods study, with data from 3026 autistic youth (n = 9 studies) and adults (n = 23 studies). Ratings suggest that the evidence base is emergent. Underrepresented groups in the sample included autistic women, transgendered autistic people, non-White autistic people, low income autistic people, and minimally speaking and/or autistic adults with co-occurring intellectual disability. Three main themes emerged, including variation in ICT communication use among autistic youth and adults, benefits and drawbacks experienced during ICT communication use, and the engagement of autistic youth and adults in the online autism community. Conclusions Further exploration of the positive social capital that autistic people gain participating in online autism communities would allow for the development of strengths-based interventions. Additional research on how autistic people navigate sexuality and ICTs is needed to identify mechanisms for reducing vulnerability online. Additional scholarship about underrepresented groups is needed to investigate and confirm findings regarding ICT communication use for gender, racial, and socioeconomic minority groups. Lay summary What was the purpose of this study?: People use the internet to communicate (talk and connect) with one another. Some research has found that autistic people may prefer to communicate using the internet instead of in person. Over the past 20 years, there has been research about how autistic people use the internet. To understand what research has discovered so far, we collected published research about how autistic youth and adults use the internet to communicate.What did the researchers do?: We used scientific best practices as described in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to collect research about how autistic people us the internet to communicate. We included research that uses words (qualitative research) and numbers (quantitative research). First, we searched several places that list research studies to find research on autistic people and the internet. Then, we removed research that did not fit what we were looking for (our criteria). Finally, we then read the full articles, collected their most important findings, and looked for patterns.What do these findings add to what is already known?: Thirty-two studies met our criteria, including 19 studies that used closed-ended survey questions that tested relationships between variables, 12 studies that used open-ended interviews and looked for patterns and connections among participants, and 1 mixed methods study. In total, 3026 autistic youth of ages 10-17 years (number of participants = 9 studies) and adults (number of participants = 23 studies) participated in these 32 studies. We rated each of the 32 studies for quality and learned that the evidence base is preliminary, meaning that more rigorous high-quality studies are needed before we can be confident in the findings. We found three main themes: (1) differences in the ways that autistic youth and adults used the internet to communicate, (2) benefits and drawbacks experienced when using the internet to communicate, and (3) the engagement of autistic youth and adults in the online autism community. Some of the benefits of social media for autistic people include more control over how they talk and engage with others online and a greater sense of calm during interactions. However, findings suggest some drawbacks for autistic people, including continued feelings of loneliness and the desire for in-person friendships. Social media provides opportunities for autistic people to find others on the autism spectrum and form a stronger identity as part of the autism community. The study also showed that there is little research about autistic women, autistic transgender people, autistic racial/ethnic minorities, or autistic people from lower socioeconomic status (SES) groups.What are potential weaknesses of this study?: We only included research in scientific articles, and there may be useful information on this topic in books, student research, or online.How will these findings help young adults on the autism spectrum now or in the future?: This study can help identify gaps and opportunities for new research, support the importance of online autistic communities, and suggest possible training opportunities about how to support autistic people when they use the internet for communication.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Laura Graham Holmes
- The A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, New York, New York, USA
| | - Collette Sosnowy
- Department of Medicine, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
| | - Jessica Walton
- The A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Kathleen Carley
- Institute for Software Research, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, USA
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20
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Reuter K, Deodhar A, Makri S, Zimmer M, Berenbaum F, Nikiphorou E. COVID-19 pandemic impact on people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases: Insights from patient-generated health data on social media. Rheumatology (Oxford) 2021; 60:SI77-SI84. [PMID: 33629107 PMCID: PMC7928589 DOI: 10.1093/rheumatology/keab174] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2020] [Accepted: 02/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Objectives During the COVID-19 pandemic, much communication occurred online, through social media. This study aimed to provide patient perspective data on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs), using Twitter-based patient-generated health data (PGHD). Methods A convenience sample of Twitter messages in English posted by people with RMDs was extracted between March 1, and July 12, 2020 and examined using thematic analysis. Included were Twitter messages that mentioned keywords and hashtags related to both COVID-19 (or SARS-CoV-2) and select RMDs. The RMDs monitored included inflammatory-driven (joint) conditions (Ankylosing Spondylitis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Lupus/Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, and Gout). Results The analysis included 569 tweets by 375 Twitter users with RMDs across several countries. Eight themes emerged regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with RMDs: (1) lack of understanding of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19; (2) critical changes in health behaviour; (3) challenges in healthcare practice and communication with healthcare professionals; (4) difficulties with access to medical care; (5) negative impact on physical and mental health, coping strategies; (6) issues around work participation, (7) negative effects of the media; (8) awareness-raising. Conclusion The findings show that Twitter serves as a real-time data source to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with RMDs. The platform provided “early signals” of potentially critical health behaviour changes. Future epidemics might benefit from the real-time use of Twitter-based PGHD to identify emerging health needs, facilitate communication, and inform clinical practice decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katja Reuter
- European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR), Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Atul Deodhar
- Division of Arthritis and Rheumatic Diseases, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, United States
| | - Souzi Makri
- European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR), People with Arthritis and Rheumatism (PARE), Zurich, Switzerland; Cyprus League Against Rheumatism, Nicosia, Cyprus; EUPATI fellow
| | - Michael Zimmer
- Department of Computer Science, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, United States
| | - Francis Berenbaum
- Department of Rheumatology, Sorbonne Université, INSERM CRSA, AP-HP Hospital Saint Antoine, Paris, France
| | - Elena Nikiphorou
- Centre for Rheumatic Diseases, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
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21
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Reuter K, Lee D. Perspectives Toward Seeking Treatment Among Patients With Psoriasis: Protocol for a Twitter Content Analysis. JMIR Res Protoc 2021; 10:e13731. [PMID: 33599620 PMCID: PMC7932841 DOI: 10.2196/13731] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2019] [Revised: 02/28/2020] [Accepted: 03/05/2020] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease estimated to affect more than 6 million adults in the United States. It poses a significant public health problem and contributes to rising health care costs, affecting people's quality of life and ability to work. Previous research showed that nontreatment and undertreatment of patients with psoriasis remain a significant problem. Perspectives of patients toward seeking psoriasis treatment are understudied. Social media offers a new data source of user-generated content. Researchers suggested that the social network Twitter may serve as a rich avenue for exploring how patients communicate about their health issues. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to conduct a content analysis of Twitter posts (in English) published by users in the United States between February 1, 2016, and October 31, 2018, to examine perspectives that potentially influence the treatment decision among patients with psoriasis. METHODS User-generated Twitter posts that include keywords related to psoriasis will be analyzed using text classifiers to identify themes related to the research questions. We will use Symplur Signals, a health care social media analytics platform, to access the Twitter data. We will use descriptive statistics to analyze the data and identify the most prevalent topics in the Twitter content among people with psoriasis. RESULTS This study is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Science through a Clinical and Translational Science Award award. Study approval was obtained from the institutional review board at the University of Southern California. Data extraction and cleaning are complete. For the time period from February 1, 2016, to October 31, 2018, we obtained 95,040 Twitter posts containing terms related to "psoriasis" from users in the United States published in English. After removing duplicates, retweets, and non-English tweets, we found that 75.51% (52,301/69,264) of the psoriasis-related posts were sent by commercial or bot-like accounts, while 16,963 posts were noncommercial and will be included in the analysis to assess the patient perspective. Analysis was completed in Summer 2020. CONCLUSIONS This protocol paper provides a detailed description of a social media research project including the process of data extraction, cleaning, and analysis. It is our goal to contribute to the development of more transparent social media research efforts. Our findings will shed light on whether Twitter provides a promising data source for garnering patient perspective data about psoriasis treatment decisions. The data will also help to determine whether Twitter might serve as a potential outreach platform for raising awareness of psoriasis and treatment options among patients and implementing related health interventions. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/13731.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katja Reuter
- Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
- Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, United States
| | - Delphine Lee
- Division of Dermatology, Department of Medicine, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, United States
- The Lundquist Institute, Torrance, CA, United States
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22
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Stens O, Weisman MH, Simard J, Reuter K. Insights From Twitter Conversations on Lupus and Reproductive Health: Protocol for a Content Analysis. JMIR Res Protoc 2020; 9:e15623. [PMID: 32844753 PMCID: PMC7481870 DOI: 10.2196/15623] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2019] [Revised: 12/24/2019] [Accepted: 05/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the most common form of lupus. It is a chronic autoimmune disease that predominantly affects women of reproductive age, impacting contraception, fertility, and pregnancy. Although clinic-based studies have contributed to an increased understanding of reproductive health care needs of patients with SLE, misinformation abounds and perspectives on reproductive health issues among patients with lupus remain poorly understood. Social networks such as Twitter may serve as a data source for exploring how lupus patients communicate about their health issues, thus adding a dimension to enrich our understanding of communication regarding reproductive health in this unique patient population. Objective The objective of this study is to conduct a content analysis of Twitter data published by users in English in the United States from September 1, 2017, to October 31, 2018, in order to examine people’s perspectives on reproductive health among patients with lupus. Methods This study will analyze user-generated posts that include keywords related to lupus and reproductive health from Twitter. To access public Twitter user data, we will use Symplur Signals, a health care social media analytics platform. Text classifiers will be used to identify topics in posts. Posts will be classified manually into the a priori and emergent categories. Based on the information available in a user’s Twitter profile (ie, username, description, and profile image), we will further attempt to characterize the user who generated the post. We will use descriptive statistics to analyze the data and identify the most prevalent topics in the Twitter content among patients with lupus. Results This study has been funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) through their Clinical and Translational Science Awards program. The Institutional Review Board at the University of Southern California approved the study (HS-18-00912). Data extraction and cleaning are complete. We obtained 47,715 Twitter posts containing terms related to “lupus” from users in the United States, published in English between September 1, 2017, and October 31, 2018. We will include 40,885 posts in the analysis, which will be completed in fall 2020. This study was supported by funds from the has been funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) through their Clinical and Translational Science Awards program. Conclusions The findings from this study will provide pilot data on the use of Twitter among patients with lupus. Our findings will shed light on whether Twitter is a promising data source for learning about reproductive health issues expressed among patients with lupus. The data will also help to determine whether Twitter can serve as a potential outreach platform for raising awareness of lupus and reproductive health and for implementing relevant health interventions. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/15623
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Affiliation(s)
- Oleg Stens
- Department of Internal Medicine, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, United States
| | - Michael H Weisman
- David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Julia Simard
- Division of Epidemiology, Department of Health Research and Policy, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, United States
| | - Katja Reuter
- Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, CA, United States.,Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
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23
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Hswen Y, Hawkins JB, Sewalk K, Tuli G, Williams DR, Viswanath K, Subramanian SV, Brownstein JS. Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Patient Experiences in the United States: 4-Year Content Analysis of Twitter. J Med Internet Res 2020; 22:e17048. [PMID: 32821062 PMCID: PMC7474415 DOI: 10.2196/17048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2019] [Revised: 05/28/2020] [Accepted: 06/21/2020] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Racial and ethnic minority groups often face worse patient experiences compared with the general population, which is directly related to poorer health outcomes within these minority populations. Evaluation of patient experience among racial and ethnic minority groups has been difficult due to lack of representation in traditional health care surveys. OBJECTIVE This study aims to assess the feasibility of Twitter for identifying racial and ethnic disparities in patient experience across the United States from 2013 to 2016. METHODS In total, 851,973 patient experience tweets with geographic location information from the United States were collected from 2013 to 2016. Patient experience tweets included discussions related to care received in a hospital, urgent care, or any other health institution. Ordinary least squares multiple regression was used to model patient experience sentiment and racial and ethnic groups over the 2013 to 2016 period and in relation to the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2014. RESULTS Racial and ethnic distribution of users on Twitter was highly correlated with population estimates from the United States Census Bureau's 5-year survey from 2016 (r2=0.99; P<.001). From 2013 to 2016, the average patient experience sentiment was highest for White patients, followed by Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, and American Indian/Alaska Native patients. A reduction in negative patient experience sentiment on Twitter for all racial and ethnic groups was seen from 2013 to 2016. Twitter users who identified as Hispanic/Latino showed the greatest improvement in patient experience, with a 1.5 times greater increase (P<.001) than Twitter users who identified as White. Twitter users who identified as Black had the highest increase in patient experience postimplementation of the ACA (2014-2016) compared with preimplementation of the ACA (2013), and this change was 2.2 times (P<.001) greater than Twitter users who identified as White. CONCLUSIONS The ACA mandated the implementation of the measurement of patient experience of care delivery. Considering that quality assessment of care is required, Twitter may offer the ability to monitor patient experiences across diverse racial and ethnic groups and inform the evaluation of health policies like the ACA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yulin Hswen
- Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States.,Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.,Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.,Innovation Program, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Jared B Hawkins
- Innovation Program, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States.,Computational Epidemiology Lab, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Kara Sewalk
- Innovation Program, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Gaurav Tuli
- Innovation Program, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
| | - David R Williams
- Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States.,Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - K Viswanath
- Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States.,Center for Community-Based Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, United States
| | - S V Subramanian
- Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States.,Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - John S Brownstein
- Innovation Program, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States.,Computational Epidemiology Lab, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
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24
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Potier R. The Digital Phenotyping Project: A Psychoanalytical and Network Theory Perspective. Front Psychol 2020; 11:1218. [PMID: 32760307 PMCID: PMC7374164 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2019] [Accepted: 05/11/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
A new method of observation is currently emerging in psychiatry, based on data collection and behavioral profiling of smartphone users. Numerical phenotyping is a paradigmatic example. This behavioral investigation method uses computerized measurement tools in order to collect characteristics of different psychiatric disorders. First, it is necessary to contextualize the emergence of these new methods and to question their promises and expectations. The international mental health research framework invites us to reflect on methodological issues and to draw conclusions from certain impasses related to the clinical complexity of this field. From this contextualization, the investigation method relating to digital phenotyping can be questioned in order to identify some of its potentials. These new methods are also an opportunity to test psychoanalysis. It is then necessary to identify the elements of fruitful analysis that clinical experience and research in psychoanalysis have been able to deploy regarding the challenges of digital technology. An analysis of this theme’s literature shows that psychoanalysis facilitates a reflection on the psychological effects related to digital methods. It also shows how it can profit from the research potential offered by new technical tools, considering the progress that has been made over the past 50 years. This cross-fertilization of the potentials and limitations of digital methods in mental health intervention in the context of theoretical issues at the international level invites us to take a resolutely non-reductionist position. In the field of research, psychoanalysis offers a specific perspective that can well be articulated to an epistemology of networks. Rather than aiming at a numerical phenotyping of patients according to the geneticists’ model, the case formulation method appears to be a serious prerequisite to give a limited and specific place to the integration of smartphones in clinical investigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rémy Potier
- Department of Psychoanalytic Studies, Institute of Humanities, Sciences and Societies, University of Paris, Paris, France
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25
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Moura I, Teles A, Silva F, Viana D, Coutinho L, Barros F, Endler M. Mental health ubiquitous monitoring supported by social situation awareness: A systematic review. J Biomed Inform 2020; 107:103454. [PMID: 32562895 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbi.2020.103454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2019] [Revised: 03/23/2020] [Accepted: 05/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Traditionally, the process of monitoring and evaluating social behavior related to mental health has based on self-reported information, which is limited by the subjective character of responses and various cognitive biases. Today, however, there is a growing amount of studies that have provided methods to objectively monitor social behavior through ubiquitous devices and have used this information to support mental health services. In this paper, we present a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to identify, analyze and characterize the state of the art about the use of ubiquitous devices to monitor users' social behavior focused on mental health. For this purpose, we performed an exhaustive literature search on the six main digital libraries. A screening process was conducted on 160 peer-reviewed publications by applying suitable selection criteria to define the appropriate studies to the scope of this SLR. Next, 20 selected studies were forwarded to the data extraction phase. From an analysis of the selected studies, we recognized the types of social situations identified, the process of transforming contextual data into social situations, the use of social situation awareness to support mental health monitoring, and the methods used to evaluate proposed solutions. Additionally, we identified the main trends presented by this research area, as well as open questions and perspectives for future research. Results of this SLR showed that social situation-aware ubiquitous systems represent promising assistance tools for patients and mental health professionals. However, studies still present limitations in methodological rigor and restrictions in experiments, and solutions proposed by them have limitations to be overcome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ivan Moura
- Laboratory of Intelligent Distributed Systems (LSDi), Federal University of Maranhão, Brazil.
| | - Ariel Teles
- Laboratory of Intelligent Distributed Systems (LSDi), Federal University of Maranhão, Brazil; Federal Institute of Maranhão, Brazil
| | - Francisco Silva
- Laboratory of Intelligent Distributed Systems (LSDi), Federal University of Maranhão, Brazil
| | - Davi Viana
- Laboratory of Intelligent Distributed Systems (LSDi), Federal University of Maranhão, Brazil
| | - Luciano Coutinho
- Laboratory of Intelligent Distributed Systems (LSDi), Federal University of Maranhão, Brazil
| | | | - Markus Endler
- Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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26
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Bellon-Harn ML, Ni J, Manchaiah V. Twitter usage about autism spectrum disorder. AUTISM : THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 2020; 24:1805-1816. [PMID: 32508126 DOI: 10.1177/1362361320923173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Stakeholders within autism spectrum disorder communities use Twitter for specific purposes. The goal of this study was to characterize patterns and themes of tweet content and sentiment and intercommunications between users sending and retweeting content to their respective user networks. The study used cross-sectional analysis of data generated from Twitter. Twitter content, sentiment, users, and community networks were examined from a sample of tweets with the highest Twitter reach and the lowest Twitter reach. Results indicate that Twitter content from both samples was primarily related to empowerment and support. Differences between the number of tweets originating from an individual in the lowest reach sample (i.e. 41%) as compared to the individuals in the highest reach sample (i.e. 18%) were noted. The number of users belonging to an advocacy subcommunity was substantially larger than a clinical and research subcommunity. Results provide insight into the presuppositions of individuals with autism spectrum disorder, their families and significant others, and other stakeholders.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Vinaya Manchaiah
- Lamar University, USA.,Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India
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27
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Reuter K, Danve A, Deodhar A. Harnessing the power of social media: how can it help in axial spondyloarthritis research? Curr Opin Rheumatol 2020; 31:321-328. [PMID: 31045949 DOI: 10.1097/bor.0000000000000614] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) is a chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease that is relatively unknown among the general public. Most patients with axSpA are young or middle-aged adults and more likely to use some social media. This review highlights trends in the application of social media and different ways in which these tools do already or may benefit clinical research, delivery of care, and education in rheumatology, particularly in the field of axSpA. RECENT FINDINGS This article discusses four areas in the biomedical field that social media has infused with novel ideas: (i) the use of patient-generated health data from social media to learn about their disease experience, (ii) delivering health education and interventions, (iii) recruiting study participants, and (iv) reform, transfer, and disseminate medical education. We conclude with promising studies in rheumatology that have incorporated social media and suggestions for future directions. SUMMARY Rheumatologists now have the opportunity to use social media and innovate on many aspects of their practice. We propose further exploration of multiple ways in which social media might help with the identification, diagnosis, education, and research study enrollment of axSpA patients. However, standardization in study design, reporting, and managing ethical and regulatory aspects will be required to take full advantage of this opportunity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katja Reuter
- Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, Department of Preventive Medicine.,Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
| | - Abhijeet Danve
- Section of Rheumatology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - Atul Deodhar
- Division of Arthritis and Rheumatic Diseases, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA
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28
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Mavragani A, Ochoa G. Google Trends in Infodemiology and Infoveillance: Methodology Framework. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2019; 5:e13439. [PMID: 31144671 PMCID: PMC6660120 DOI: 10.2196/13439] [Citation(s) in RCA: 220] [Impact Index Per Article: 44.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2019] [Revised: 02/17/2019] [Accepted: 03/23/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Internet data are being increasingly integrated into health informatics research and are becoming a useful tool for exploring human behavior. The most popular tool for examining online behavior is Google Trends, an open tool that provides information on trends and the variations of online interest in selected keywords and topics over time. Online search traffic data from Google have been shown to be useful in analyzing human behavior toward health topics and in predicting disease occurrence and outbreaks. Despite the large number of Google Trends studies during the last decade, the literature on the subject lacks a specific methodology framework. This article aims at providing an overview of the tool and data and at presenting the first methodology framework in using Google Trends in infodemiology and infoveillance, including the main factors that need to be taken into account for a strong methodology base. We provide a step-by-step guide for the methodology that needs to be followed when using Google Trends and the essential aspects required for valid results in this line of research. At first, an overview of the tool and the data are presented, followed by an analysis of the key methodological points for ensuring the validity of the results, which include selecting the appropriate keyword(s), region(s), period, and category. Overall, this article presents and analyzes the key points that need to be considered to achieve a strong methodological basis for using Google Trends data, which is crucial for ensuring the value and validity of the results, as the analysis of online queries is extensively integrated in health research in the big data era.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amaryllis Mavragani
- Department of Computing Science and Mathematics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom
| | - Gabriela Ochoa
- Department of Computing Science and Mathematics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom
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