Online conversations among Ontario university students: environmental concerns

Ethical considerations and methodological uses of Facebook data in public health research: A systematic review

OBJECTIVE

Since 2016, around seven in 10 adults in the United States (U.S.) actively use Facebook. While much Facebook data is publicly available for research, many users may not understand how their data are being used. We sought to examine to what extent research ethical practices were employed and the research methods being used with Facebook data in public health research.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic review (PROSPERO registration CRD42020148170) of social media-based public health research focused on Facebook published in peer-reviewed journals in English between January 1, 2006 and October 31, 2019. We extracted data on ethical practices, methodology, and data analytic approaches. For studies that included verbatim user content, we attempted to locate users/posts within a timed 10-min period.

RESULTS

Sixty-one studies met eligibility criteria. Just under half (48%, n = 29) sought IRB approval and six (10%) sought and obtained informed consent from Facebook users. Users' written content appeared in 39 (64%) papers, of which 36 presented verbatim quotes. We were able to locate users/posts within 10 min for half (50%, n = 18) of the 36 studies containing verbatim content. Identifiable posts included content about sensitive health topics. We identified six categories of analytic approaches to using these data: network analysis, utility (i.e., usefulness of Facebook as a tool for surveillance, public health dissemination, or attitudes), associational studies of users' behavior and health outcomes, predictive model development, and two types of content analysis (thematic analysis and sentiment analysis). Associational studies were the most likely to seek IRB review (5/6, 83%), while those of utility (0/4, 0%) and prediction (1/4, 25%) were the least likely to do so.

CONCLUSIONS

Stronger guidance on research ethics for using Facebook data, especially the use of personal identifiers, is needed.

Social impact in social media: A new method to evaluate the social impact of research

The social impact of research has usually been analysed through the scientific outcomes produced under the auspices of the research. The growth of scholarly content in social media and the use of altmetrics by researchers to track their work facilitate the advancement in evaluating the impact of research. However, there is a gap in the identification of evidence of the social impact in terms of what citizens are sharing on their social media platforms. This article applies a social impact in social media methodology (SISM) to identify quantitative and qualitative evidence of the potential or real social impact of research shared on social media, specifically on Twitter and Facebook. We define the social impact coverage ratio (SICOR) to identify the percentage of tweets and Facebook posts providing information about potential or actual social impact in relation to the total amount of social media data found related to specific research projects. We selected 10 projects in different fields of knowledge to calculate the SICOR, and the results indicate that 0.43% of the tweets and Facebook posts collected provide linkages with information about social impact. However, our analysis indicates that some projects have a high percentage (4.98%) and others have no evidence of social impact shared in social media. Examples of quantitative and qualitative evidence of social impact are provided to illustrate these results. A general finding is that novel evidences of social impact of research can be found in social media, becoming relevant platforms for scientists to spread quantitative and qualitative evidence of social impact in social media to capture the interest of citizens. Thus, social media users are showed to be intermediaries making visible and assessing evidence of social impact.

"It is about being outside": Canadian youth's perspectives of good health and the environment

Drawing on qualitative data generated from an ethnographic study exploring Canadian youth's understanding of health, this paper examines youth's perspectives of the relationships between health and environment. Seventy-one youth (12 to 19 years of age) took part in individual and focus group interviews, as well as in photovoice interviews. Although initial discourse about health mainly focused on healthy eating and exercise, youth were more enthused and able to share their thoughts and feelings about the relationships between health and environment during the photovoice interviews. For these youth, good health was defined and visualized as "being outside" in a safe, clean, green, and livable space. Youth talked about conditions contributing to healthy environments and how healthy environments contributed to a strong sense of place. Overall, the conversations about the environment evoked many feelings in the youth. Results are discussed in the context of current research and in relation to youth, but also more broadly in relation to research on health and environment.

Did you hear the one about the doctor? An examination of doctor jokes posted on Facebook

BACKGROUND

Social networking sites such as Facebook have become immensely popular in recent years and present a unique opportunity for researchers to eavesdrop on the collective conversation of current societal issues.

OBJECTIVE

We sought to explore doctor-related humor by examining doctor jokes posted on Facebook.

METHODS

We performed a cross-sectional study of 33,326 monitored Facebook users, 263 (0.79%) of whom posted a joke that referenced doctors on their Facebook wall during a 6-month observation period (December 15, 2010 to June 16, 2011). We compared characteristics of so-called jokers to nonjokers and identified the characteristics of jokes that predicted joke success measured by having elicited at least one electronic laugh (eg, an LOL or "laughing out loud") as well as the total number of Facebook "likes" the joke received.

RESULTS

Jokers told 156 unique doctor jokes and were the same age as nonjokers but had larger social networks (median Facebook friends 227 vs 132, P<.001) and were more likely to be divorced, separated, or widowed (P<.01). In 39.7% (62/156) of unique jokes, the joke was at the expense of doctors. Jokes at the expense of doctors compared to jokes not at the expense of doctors tended to be more successful in eliciting an electronic laugh (46.5% vs 37.3%), although the association was statistically insignificant. In our adjusted models, jokes that were based on current events received considerably more Facebook likes (rate ratio [RR] 2.36, 95% CI 0.97-5.74).

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides insight into the use of social networking sites for research pertaining to health and medicine, including the world of doctor-related humor.

Dental fear and anxiety in children and adolescents: qualitative study using YouTube

Background

Dental fear and anxiety (DFA) refers to the fear of and anxiety towards going to the dentist. It exists in a considerable proportion of children and adolescents and is a major dilemma in pediatric dental practice. As an Internet social medium with increasing popularity, the video-sharing website YouTube offers a useful data source for understanding health behaviors and perceptions of the public.

Objective

Using YouTube as a platform, this qualitative study aimed to examine the manifestations, impacts, and origins of DFA in children and adolescents from the public’s perspective.

Methods

To retrieve relevant information, we searched YouTube using the keywords “dental fear”, “dental anxiety”, and “dental phobia”. Videos in English expressing a layperson’s views or experience on children’s or adolescent’s DFA were selected for this study. A video was excluded if it had poor audiovisual quality, was irrelevant, was pure advertisement or entertainment, or contained only the views of professionals. After the screen, we transcribed 27 videos involving 32 children and adolescents, which were reviewed by a panel of 3 investigators, including a layperson with no formal dental training. Inductive thematic analysis was applied for coding and interpreting the data.

Results

The videos revealed multiple manifestations and impacts of DFA, including immediate physical reactions (eg, crying, screaming, and shivering), psychological responses (eg, worry, upset, panic, helplessness, insecurity, resentment, and hatred), and uncooperativeness in dental treatment. Testimonials from children, adolescents, and their parents suggested diverse origins of DFA, namely personal experience (eg, irregular dental visits and influence of parents or peers), dentists and dental auxiliaries (eg, bad manner, lack of clinical skills, and improper work ethic), dental settings (eg, dental chair and sounds), and dental procedures (eg, injections, pain, discomfort, and aesthetic concerns).

Conclusions

This qualitative study suggests that DFA in children and adolescents has multifaceted manifestations, impacts, and origins, some of which only became apparent when using Internet social media. Our findings support the value of infodemiological studies using Internet social media to gain a better understanding of health issues.