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Sousa-Pinto B, Jankin S, Vieira RJ, Marques-Cruz M, Fonseca JA, Bousquet J. English tweets on allergy: Content analysis and association with surveillance data. Clin Exp Allergy 2024; 54:500-508. [PMID: 38567657 DOI: 10.1111/cea.14479] [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: 01/06/2024] [Accepted: 03/20/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Analysis of X (formerly Twitter) posts can inform on the interest/perceptions that social media users have on health subjects. In this study, we aimed to analyse tweets on allergic conditions, comparing them with surveillance data. METHODS We retrieved tweets from England on "allergy," "asthma," and "allergic rhinitis," published between 2016 and 2021. We estimated the correlation between the frequency of tweets on "asthma" and "allergic rhinitis" and English surveillance data on the incidence of asthma and allergic rhinitis medical visits. We performed sentiment analysis, computing a score informing on the emotional tone of assessed tweets. We applied a topic modelling approach to identify topics (clusters of words frequently occurring together) for tweets on each assessed condition. RESULTS We analysed a total of 13,605 tweets on "allergy," 7767 tweets on "asthma," and 11,974 tweets on "allergic rhinitis." Food-related words were preponderant on tweets on "allergy," while "eyes" was the most frequent meaningful word on "allergy rhinitis" tweets. We observed seasonal patterns for tweets on "allergic rhinitis," both in their frequency and sentiment - the incidence of allergic rhinitis medical visits was moderately to strongly correlated with the frequency (ρ = 0.866) and sentiment (ρ = -0.474) of tweets on "allergic rhinitis." For tweets on "asthma," no such patterns/correlations were observed. The average sentiment score was negative for all assessed conditions, ranging from -0.004 ("asthma") to -0.083 ("allergic rhinitis"). CONCLUSIONS Tweets on "allergic rhinitis" displayed a seasonal pattern regarding their frequency and sentiment, which correlated with surveillance data. No such patterns were observed for "asthma."
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Affiliation(s)
- Bernardo Sousa-Pinto
- MEDCIDS-Department of Community Medicine, Information and Health Decision Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
- Centre for Health Technology and Services Research, Health Research Network (CINTESIS@RISE), Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
| | - Slava Jankin
- School of Government and School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - Rafael José Vieira
- MEDCIDS-Department of Community Medicine, Information and Health Decision Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
- Centre for Health Technology and Services Research, Health Research Network (CINTESIS@RISE), Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
| | - Manuel Marques-Cruz
- MEDCIDS-Department of Community Medicine, Information and Health Decision Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
- Centre for Health Technology and Services Research, Health Research Network (CINTESIS@RISE), Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
| | - João Almeida Fonseca
- MEDCIDS-Department of Community Medicine, Information and Health Decision Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
- Centre for Health Technology and Services Research, Health Research Network (CINTESIS@RISE), Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
| | - Jean Bousquet
- Institute of Allergology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology ITMP, Allergology and Immunology, Berlin, Germany
- MASK-air, Montpellier, France
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Carroll CL, Kaul V, Dangayach NS, Szakmany T, Winter G, Khateeb D, Carlos WG, Kudchadkar SR. Comparing the Digital Footprint of Pulmonary and Critical Care Conferences on Twitter. ATS Sch 2021; 2:432-441. [PMID: 34667991 PMCID: PMC8518662 DOI: 10.34197/ats-scholar.2021-0041oc] [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: 03/20/2021] [Accepted: 07/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Pulmonary and critical care societies, including the American Thoracic Society, the American College of Chest Physicians, and the Society of Critical Care Medicine have large memberships that gather at academic conference events, attracting thousands of attendees. Objective: With the growth of social media use among pulmonary and critical care clinicians, our goal was to examine the Twitter presence and digital footprint of these three major medical society conferences. Methods: We used Symplur Signals (Symplur, LLC) to track the tweets and most active participants of the 2017-2019 annual conferences of American Thoracic Society, American College of Chest Physicians, and the Society of Critical Care Medicine. Attendance records of participants were obtained from each society. Results: During the study period, there was growth in the number of tweets, participants, and impressions for all three society conferences. Across all conferences, the amount of original content generated was less than the retweets, which comprised 50-72% of all tweets. Individuals physically attending each conference were more likely to post original content than those not in attendance (53-68% vs. 32-47%). For each society and at each meeting, clinicians made up the largest group of participants (44-60%), and most (59-82%) were physicians. A small cohort of participants was responsible for a large share of the tweets, with more than half of the participants at each conference for each society tweeting only once and only between 5-8% of participants tweeting more than 10 times. Seventy-eight individuals tweeted more than 100 times at one or more of the conferences. There was significant overlap in this group, with 32 of these individual participants tweeting more than 100 times at two or more of these conferences. Conclusion: Growth in conference digital footprints is largely due to increased activity by a small group of prolific participants that attend conferences by multiple academic societies. Original content makes up the smallest proportion of posts, suggesting that amplification of content is more prevalent than posting of original content. In a postpandemic environment, engagement of users producing original content may be even more important for medical societies.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Viren Kaul
- Crouse Health/SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York
| | | | - Tamas Szakmany
- Critical Care Directorate, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, Grange University Hospital, Llanyravon, Cwmbran, United Kingdom
- Division of Population Medicine, Department of Anaesthesia, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
| | - Gretchen Winter
- Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama
| | - Dina Khateeb
- Berks Schuylkill Respiratory Specialists, Reading, Pennsylvania
| | - W. Graham Carlos
- Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep and Occupational Medicine, Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana; and
| | - Sapna R. Kudchadkar
- Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine
- Department of Pediatrics, and
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
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Santhosh L. If You Build It, Will They Come? The Social Media Footprint of Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowships. ATS Sch 2021; 2:149-151. [PMID: 34409405 PMCID: PMC8357059 DOI: 10.34197/ats-scholar.2021-0063ed] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Lekshmi Santhosh
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California
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Kaul V, Szakmany T, Peters JI, Stukus D, Sala KA, Dangayach N, Simpson SQ, Carroll CL. Quality of the discussion of asthma on twitter. J Asthma 2020; 59:325-332. [PMID: 33215947 DOI: 10.1080/02770903.2020.1847933] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Patients obtain a large amount of medical information online. Much of this information may not be reliable or of high quality. We investigated what influences the discussion of asthma on Twitter by evaluating the most popular tweets and the quality of the links shared. METHODS We used Symplur Signals to extract data from Twitter examining characteristics of the top 100 most shared tweets and the 50 most shared links that included the hashtag #asthma. Information on each site was assessed using an Asthma Content score, and validated DISCERN scores and HONCode criteria. RESULTS The top 100 asthma-related tweets were shared 10,169 times and had 16,044 likes. Healthcare organizations posted 49 of the top 100 tweets, non-healthcare individuals posted 20, non-healthcare organizations posted 16 and clinicians posted 14. Of the top 100 tweets, 62 were educational, 11 research-related, 10 political and 15 promotional. The top 50 links were shared 6009 times (median number of shares 92 per link (range 60-710)). Links most commonly (42%) led to educational content while 24% of links led to research articles, 22% to promotional websites, and 12% to political websites. Educational links had higher Asthma Content scores than other links (p < 0.005). Overall, all three scores were low for all types of links. Only 34% of sites met HONCode criteria, and 14% were assessed as high quality by DISCERN score. CONCLUSION The top tweets using the hashtag #asthma were commonly educational. The majority of top links on Twitter scored poorly on asthma content, quality, and reliability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Viren Kaul
- Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Crouse Health/SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA
| | - Tamas Szakmany
- Critical Care Directorate, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, Gwent, UK.,Division of Population Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
| | - Jay I Peters
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center At San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
| | - David Stukus
- Allergy & Immunology, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Kathleen A Sala
- Department of Pediatrics, Connecticut Children's Hospital, Hartford, CT, USA
| | - Neha Dangayach
- Department of Neurosurgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Steven Q Simpson
- Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, The University of Kansas Medical Center Kansas City, KS, USA
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Carroll CL, Szakmany T, Dangayach NS, DePriest A, Duprey MS, Kaul V, Kleinpell R, Tegtmeyer K, Kudchadkar SR. Growth of the Digital Footprint of the Society of Critical Care Medicine Annual Congress: 2014-2020. Crit Care Explor 2020; 2:e0252. [PMID: 33205047 PMCID: PMC7665246 DOI: 10.1097/cce.0000000000000252] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Since 2014, the Society of Critical Care Medicine has encouraged "live-tweeting" through the use of specific hashtags at each annual Critical Care Congress. We describe how the digital footprint of the Society of Critical Care Medicine Congress on Twitter has evolved at a time when social media use at conferences is becoming increasingly popular. DESIGN We used Symplur Signals (Symplur LLC, Pasadena, CA) to track all tweets containing the Society of Critical Care Medicine Congress hashtag for each annual meeting between 2014 and 2020. We collected data on the number of tweets, tweet characteristics, and impressions (i.e., potential views) for each year and data on the characteristics of the top 100 most actively tweeting users of that Congress. SETTING Twitter. SUBJECTS Users tweeting with the Critical Care Congress hashtag. INTERVENTIONS Not applicable. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The Critical Care Congress digital footprint grew substantially from 2014 to 2020. The 2014 Critical Care Congress included 1,629 tweets by 266 users, compared with 29,657 tweets by 3,551 participants in 2020; average hourly tweets increased from 9.7 to 177. The percentage of tweets with mentions of other users and tweets with visual media increased. Users attending the conference were significantly more likely to compose original tweets, whereas those tweeting from afar were more likely to retweet Critical Care Congress content. There was a yearly increase in content-specific hashtags used in conjunction with Critical Care Congress hashtags (n = 429 in 2014 to n = 22,272 in 2020), most commonly related to pediatrics (18% of all hashtags), mobility/rehab (9%), sepsis (7%) social media (6%), and ICU burnout (1%). CONCLUSIONS There has been significant growth in live-tweeting at the Critical Care Congress, along with the increased use of content-specific hashtags and visual media. This digital footprint is largely driven by a proportion of highly engaged users. As medical conferences transition to completely or partially online platforms, understanding of the digital footprint is crucial for success.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Tamas Szakmany
- Critical Care Directorate, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, Gwent, United Kingdom
- Division of Population Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
| | | | | | - Matthew S Duprey
- Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA
| | - Viren Kaul
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Crouse Health/SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY
| | | | - Ken Tegtmeyer
- Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH
| | - Sapna R Kudchadkar
- Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Pediatrics, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
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