Twitter Shows Potential as Source of Public Health Data
Twitter Shows Potential as Source of Public Health Data Patients are flocking to the popular social media platform Twitter to “tweet” about their dental related aches and pains, a new study finds. And the dental community is taking note of
Twitter Shows Potential as Source of Public Health Data
Patients are flocking to the popular social media platform Twitter to “tweet” about their dental-related aches and pains, a new study finds. And the dental community is taking note of this shift in patient communication—raising the possibility that data from social networking sites could be useful for research purposes.
After collecting an initial set of 4,859 tweets containing content related to dental pain, researchers from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Dentistry’s Department of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences randomly selected 1,000 tweets to study. After filtering, 772 tweets were analyzed, and the team classified them into one or more categories: 83% were classified as a general statement of dental pain; 22% commented about a dental action taken or contemplated; and 15% noted dental pain that was said to impact daily activities.
The tweets were also evaluated to determine course of action, which revealed 44% of the senders visited a dentist, 43% turned to medication, while 15% sought advice from fellow Twitter users.
The study, “Public Health Surveillance of Dental Pain via Twitter” (which at presstime was scheduled to be published in the Journal of Dental Research), was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Research Resources, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, and the UCSF Clinical & Translational Science Institute.
The research suggests valuable patient information can be gleaned via sites such as Twitter. “This paper highlights the potential of using social media to collect public health data for research purposes,” notes William Giannobile, editor in chief of the Journal of Dental Research. “Utilizing Twitter,” he adds, “is an interesting, early stage approach with potential impact in the assessment of large sets of population information.”
