Dissemination of health information through social networks: Twitter and antibiotics
Background
This study reviewed Twitter status updates mentioning “antibiotic(s)” to determine overarching categories and explore evidence of misunderstanding or misuse of antibiotics.
Methods
One thousand Twitter status updates mentioning antibiotic(s) were randomly selected for content analysis and categorization. To explore cases of potential misunderstanding or misuse, these status updates were mined for co-occurrence of the following terms: “cold + antibiotic(s),” “extra + antibiotic(s),” “flu + antibiotic(s),” “leftover + antibiotic(s),” and “share + antibiotic(s)” and reviewed to confirm evidence of misuse or misunderstanding.
Results
Of the 1000 status updates, 971 were categorized into 11 groups: general use (n = 289), advice/information (n = 157), side effects/negative reactions (n = 113), diagnosis (n = 102), resistance (n = 92), misunderstanding and/or misuse (n = 55), positive reactions (n = 48), animals (n = 46), other (n = 42), wanting/needing (n = 19), and cost (n = 8). Cases of misunderstanding or abuse were identified for the following combinations: “flu + antibiotic(s)” (n = 345), “cold + antibiotic(s)” (n = 302), “leftover + antibiotic(s)” (n = 23), “share + antibiotic(s)” (n = 10), and “extra + antibiotic(s)” (n = 7).
Conclusion
Social media sites offer means of health information sharing. Further study is warranted to explore how such networks may provide a venue to identify misuse or misunderstanding of antibiotics, promote positive behavior change, disseminate valid information, and explore how such tools can be used to gather real-time health data.
cSchool of Nursing and Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY
Address correspondence to Daniel Scanfeld, Fidock Lab, Columbia University Medical Center, Hammer HSC, Room 1502, 701 W 168th St, New York, NY 10032.
Supported by Columbia University, The Center for Interdisciplinary Research to Reduce Antimicrobial Resistance, grant No. T90 NR010824: Training in Interdisciplinary Research to Reduce Antimicrobial Resistance (TIRAR).
ABSTRACT