A Study of the Demographics of Web-Based Health-Related Social Media Users

Sadah, Shouq A; Shahbazi, Moloud; Wiley, Matthew; Hristidis, Vagelis

doi:10.2196/jmir.4308

Cited by 61 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…These responses were elicited via an “Other” option ( Table 5 ), but not to the extent suggested in literature reporting social network sites are becoming popular sources of general information for many users [ 42 ]. While such social network sites are reportedly less popular for people with chronic health conditions in the United States [ 42 ], their use is reportedly increasing [ 78 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consumer Use of “Dr Google”: A Survey on Health Information-Seeking Behaviors and Navigational Needs

Lee¹,

Hoti²,

Hughes³

et al. 2015

J Med Internet Res

176

165

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BackgroundThe Internet provides a platform to access health information and support self-management by consumers with chronic health conditions. Despite recognized barriers to accessing Web-based health information, there is a lack of research quantitatively exploring whether consumers report difficulty finding desired health information on the Internet and whether these consumers would like assistance (ie, navigational needs). Understanding navigational needs can provide a basis for interventions guiding consumers to quality Web-based health resources.ObjectiveWe aimed to (1) estimate the proportion of consumers with navigational needs among seekers of Web-based health information with chronic health conditions, (2) describe Web-based health information-seeking behaviors, level of patient activation, and level of eHealth literacy among consumers with navigational needs, and (3) explore variables predicting navigational needs.MethodsA questionnaire was developed based on findings from a qualitative study on Web-based health information-seeking behaviors and navigational needs. This questionnaire also incorporated the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS; a measure of self-perceived eHealth literacy) and PAM-13 (a measure of patient activation). The target population was consumers of Web-based health information with chronic health conditions. We surveyed a sample of 400 Australian adults, with recruitment coordinated by Qualtrics. This sample size was required to estimate the proportion of consumers identified with navigational needs with a precision of 4.9% either side of the true population value, with 95% confidence. A subsample was invited to retake the survey after 2 weeks to assess the test-retest reliability of the eHEALS and PAM-13.ResultsOf 514 individuals who met our eligibility criteria, 400 (77.8%) completed the questionnaire and 43 participants completed the retest. Approximately half (51.3%; 95% CI 46.4-56.2) of the population was identified with navigational needs. Participants with navigational needs appeared to look for more types of health information on the Internet and from a greater variety of information sources compared to participants without navigational needs. However, participants with navigational needs were significantly less likely to have high levels of eHealth literacy (adjusted odds ratio=0.83, 95% CI 0.78-0.89, P<.001). Age was also a significant predictor (P=.02).ConclusionsApproximately half of the population of consumers of Web-based health information with chronic health conditions would benefit from support in finding health information on the Internet. Despite the popularity of the Internet as a source of health information, further work is recommended to maximize its potential as a tool to assist self-management in consumers with chronic health conditions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consumer Use of “Dr Google”: A Survey on Health Information-Seeking Behaviors and Navigational Needs

Lee¹,

Hoti²,

Hughes³

et al. 2015

J Med Internet Res

176

165

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“… 76–79 Twitter is an inherently biased representation of the broader population and is skewed both in terms of age and socioeconomics. 80–83 Second, while the location inference method is a standard in the area, 84 85 the methods are imperfect. 86–89 Third, the study was limited to English-language tweets in three countries, and evaluations of other countries and other languages may have yielded different results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing human papillomavirus vaccine concerns on Twitter: a cross-sectional study of users in Australia, Canada and the UK

et al. 2017

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ObjectiveOpposition to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is common on social media and has the potential to impact vaccine coverage. This study aims to conduct an international comparison of the proportions of tweets about HPV vaccines that express concerns, the types of concerns expressed and the social connections among users posting about HPV vaccines in Australia, Canada and the UK.DesignUsing a cross-sectional design, an international comparison of English language tweets about HPV vaccines and social connections among Twitter users posting about HPV vaccines between January 2014 and April 2016 was conducted. The Health Belief Model, one of the most widely used theories in health psychology, was used as the basis for coding the types of HPV vaccine concerns expressed on Twitter.SettingThe content of tweets and the social connections between users who posted tweets about HPV vaccines from Australia, Canada and the UK.Population16 789 Twitter users who posted 43 852 tweets about HPV vaccines.Main outcome measuresThe proportions of tweets expressing concern, the type of concern expressed and the proportions of local and international social connections between users.ResultsTweets expressing concerns about HPV vaccines made up 14.9% of tweets in Canada, 19.4% in Australia and 22.6% in the UK. The types of concerns expressed were similar across the three countries, with concerns related to ‘perceived barriers’ being the most common. Users expressing concerns about HPV vaccines in each of the three countries had a relatively high proportion of international followers also expressing concerns.ConclusionsThe proportions and types of HPV vaccine concerns expressed on Twitter were similar across the three countries. Twitter users who mostly expressed concerns about HPV vaccines were better connected to international users who shared their concerns compared with users who did not express concerns about HPV vaccines.

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“…These results could be explained by the fact that women aged 18-45 years correspond to the most important population of web forum users. 29,30 Moreover, although our study detected the presence of drugs related to chronic diseases like diabetes mellitus (insulin/ Lantus ® , metformine), asthma (salbutamol/Ventoline ® ), hypothyroidism (Levothyrox ® ), epilepsy (clonazepam/Rivotril ® , Depakine ® , Lamictal ® ), depression (venlafaxine/Effexor ® , paroxetine/ Deroxat ® , escitalopram/Seroplex ® , fluoxetine/Prozac ® , sertraline/Zoloft ® ) or cancer (Tarceva ® , triptoreline/Decapeptyl ® ), most of the highly mentioned drugs concerned mainly young patients Omeprazole Morphine without serious pathologies. In the second position, we found painkiller medications (paracetamol, ibuprofen, morphine, etc.).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pharmacology and social media: Potentials and biases of web forums for drug mention analysis—case study of France

Calvier

Bellet²,

Beyens

et al. 2019

Health Informatics J

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The aim of this study is to analyze drug mentions in web forums to evaluate the utility of this data source for drug post-marketing studies. We automatically annotated over 60 million posts extracted from 21 French web forums. Drug mentions detected in this corpus were matched to drug names in a French drug database (Theriaque®). Our analysis showed that a high proportion of the most frequent drug mentions in the selected web forums correspond to drugs that are usually prescribed to young women, such as combined oral contraceptives. The most mentioned drugs in our corpus correlated weakly to the most prescribed drugs in France but seemed to be influenced by events widely reported in traditional media. In this article, we conclude that web forums have high potential for post-marketing drug-related studies, such as pharmacovigilance, and observation of drug utilization. However, the bias related to forum selection and the corresponding population representativeness should always be taken into account.

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A Study of the Demographics of Web-Based Health-Related Social Media Users

Cited by 61 publications

References 10 publications

Consumer Use of “Dr Google”: A Survey on Health Information-Seeking Behaviors and Navigational Needs

Consumer Use of “Dr Google”: A Survey on Health Information-Seeking Behaviors and Navigational Needs

Comparing human papillomavirus vaccine concerns on Twitter: a cross-sectional study of users in Australia, Canada and the UK

Pharmacology and social media: Potentials and biases of web forums for drug mention analysis—case study of France

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