How Health Care Workers Wield Influence Through Twitter Hashtags: Retrospective Cross-sectional Study of the Gun Violence and COVID-19 Public Health Crises

Ojo, Ayotomiwa; Guntuku, Sharath Chandra; Zheng, Margaret; Beidas, Rinad S.; Ranney, Megan L.

doi:10.2196/24562

Cited by 39 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Similar to this study, a few articles focused on the HCP population [ 9 , 32 ]. Ojo et al [ 9 ] addressed a specific research question comparing the COVID-19–related social media reaction of HCPs to gun violence. Wahbeh et al [ 32 ] studied a small-scale population of HCPs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Many publications relating to Twitter analyses during the pandemic highlighted health care agencies’ and professionals’ critical roles in providing reliable information disseminated via online social networks during intense situations [ 4 , 6 ]. Contrary to studies that analyzed the general population, others focused on specific populations, such as policy makers [ 7 ], students [ 8 ], and health care professionals (HCPs) [ 9 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The State of Mind of Health Care Professionals in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Text Analysis Study of Twitter Discourses

Elyashar¹,

Plochotnikov²,

Cohen³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has affected populations worldwide, with extreme health, economic, social, and political implications. Health care professionals (HCPs) are at the core of pandemic response and are among the most crucial factors in maintaining coping capacities. Yet, they are also vulnerable to mental health effects caused by managing a long-lasting emergency with a lack of resources and under complicated personal concerns. However, there are a lack of longitudinal studies that investigate the HCP population. Objective The aim of this study was to analyze the state of mind of HCPs as expressed in online discussions published on Twitter in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, from the onset of the pandemic until the end of 2020. Methods The population for this study was selected from followers of a few hundred Twitter accounts of health care organizations and common HCP points of interest. We used active learning, a process that iteratively uses machine learning and manual data labeling, to select the large-scale population of Twitter accounts maintained by English-speaking HCPs, focusing on individuals rather than official organizations. We analyzed the topics and emotions in their discourses during 2020. The topic distributions were obtained using the latent Dirichlet allocation algorithm. We defined a measure of topic cohesion and described the most cohesive topics. The emotions expressed in tweets during 2020 were compared to those in 2019. Finally, the emotion intensities were cross-correlated with the pandemic waves to explore possible associations between the pandemic development and emotional response. Results We analyzed the timelines of 53,063 Twitter profiles, 90% of which were maintained by individual HCPs. Professional topics accounted for 44.5% of tweets by HCPs from January 1, 2019, to December 6, 2020. Events such as the pandemic waves, US elections, or the George Floyd case affected the HCPs’ discourse. The levels of joy and sadness exceeded their minimal and maximal values from 2019, respectively, 80% of the time (P=.001). Most interestingly, fear preceded the pandemic waves, in terms of the differences in confirmed cases, by 2 weeks with a Spearman correlation coefficient of ρ(47 pairs)=0.340 (P=.03). Conclusions Analyses of longitudinal data over the year 2020 revealed that a large fraction of HCP discourse is directly related to professional content, including the increase in the volume of discussions following the pandemic waves. The changes in emotional patterns (ie, decrease in joy and increase in sadness, fear, and disgust) during the year 2020 may indicate the utmost importance in providing emotional support for HCPs to prevent fatigue, burnout, and mental health disorders during the postpandemic period. The increase in fear 2 weeks in advance of pandemic waves indicates that HCPs are in a position, and with adequate qualifications, to anticipate pandemic development, and could serve as a bottom-up pathway for expressing morbidity and clinical situations to health agencies.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The State of Mind of Health Care Professionals in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Text Analysis Study of Twitter Discourses

Elyashar¹,

Plochotnikov²,

Cohen³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Notable divisions related to public health measures and frameworks for closing and reopening local economies have proliferated [ 2 ]. A unique aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic is the role that social media plays in housing, disseminating, and amplifying information and opinions [ 3 , 4 ]. US legislators have also taken to social media to connect with their constituents, comment on the pandemic, and provide information across a spectrum of pandemic-related content to individuals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Partisan Differences in Twitter Language Among US Legislators During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Study

Guntuku¹,

Purtle²,

Meisel³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background As policy makers continue to shape the national and local responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, the information they choose to share and how they frame their content provide key insights into the public and health care systems. Objective We examined the language used by the members of the US House and Senate during the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic and measured content and sentiment based on the tweets that they shared. Methods We used Quorum (Quorum Analytics Inc) to access more than 300,000 tweets posted by US legislators from January 1 to October 10, 2020. We used differential language analyses to compare the content and sentiment of tweets posted by legislators based on their party affiliation. Results We found that health care–related themes in Democratic legislators’ tweets focused on racial disparities in care (odds ratio [OR] 2.24, 95% CI 2.22-2.27; P<.001), health care and insurance (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.7-1.77; P<.001), COVID-19 testing (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.12-1.19; P<.001), and public health guidelines (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.22-1.29; P<.001). The dominant themes in the Republican legislators’ discourse included vaccine development (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.47-1.55; P<.001) and hospital resources and equipment (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.18-1.25). Nonhealth care–related topics associated with a Democratic affiliation included protections for essential workers (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.52-1.59), the 2020 election and voting (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.27-1.35), unemployment and housing (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.24-1.31), crime and racism (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.18-1.26), public town halls (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.16-1.23), the Trump Administration (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.19-1.26), immigration (OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.12-1.19), and the loss of life (OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.35-1.42). The themes associated with the Republican affiliation included China (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.85-1.92), small business assistance (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.23-1.3), congressional relief bills (OR 1.23, 95% CI 1.2-1.27), press briefings (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.19-1.26), and economic recovery (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.16-1.23). Conclusions Divergent language use on social media corresponds to the partisan divide in the first several months of the course of the COVID-19 public health crisis.

show abstract

“…Shattell and Darmoc argue that nurses should consider using Twitter to make their "practical, real-life knowledge or…research findings or insights on current issues… available for the public" and to "harness attention from some more traditional media sources" [5]. While there is an abundance of research regarding the use of hashtags by health care professionals on Twitter [6][7][8][9][10], little is known about the ways in which schools of nursing used Twitter to invite attention from and engagement with journalists, policy makers, and the general public in the 2 years before The Woodhull Study Revisited was published in September 2018 and the 2 years after its publication. This study seeks to fill this gap.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Intercom and Megaphone Hashtags Using Four Years of Tweets From the Top 44 Schools of Nursing: Thematic Analysis

Acquaviva¹

2021

JMIR Nursing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background When this study began in 2018, I sought to determine the extent to which the top 50 schools of nursing were using hashtags that could attract attention from journalists on Twitter. In December 2020, the timeframe was expanded to encompass 2 more years of data, and an analysis was conducted of the types of hashtags used. Objective The study attempted to answer the following question: to what extent are top-ranked schools of nursing using hashtags that could attract attention from journalists, policy makers, and the public on Twitter? Methods In February 2018, 47 of the top 50 schools of nursing had public Twitter accounts. The most recent 3200 tweets were extracted from each account and analyzed. There were 31,762 tweets in the time period covered (September 29, 2016, through February 22, 2018). After 13,429 retweets were excluded, 18,333 tweets remained. In December 2020, 44 of the original 47 schools of nursing still had public Twitter accounts under the same name used in the first phase of the study. Three accounts that were no longer active were removed from the 2016-2018 data set, resulting in 16,939 tweets from 44 schools of nursing. The Twitter data for the 44 schools of nursing were obtained for the time period covered in the second phase of the study (February 23, 2018, through December 13, 2020), and the most recent 3200 tweets were extracted from each of the accounts. On excluding retweets, there were 40,368 tweets in the 2018-2020 data set. The 2016-2018 data set containing 16,939 tweets was merged with the 2018-2020 data set containing 40,368 tweets, resulting in 57,307 tweets in the 2016-2020 data set. Results Each hashtag used 100 times or more in the 2016-2020 data set was categorized as one of the following seven types: nursing, school, conference or tweet chat, health, illness/disease/condition, population, and something else. These types were then broken down into the following two categories: intercom hashtags and megaphone hashtags. Approximately 83% of the time, schools of nursing used intercom hashtags (inward-facing hashtags focused on in-group discussion within and about the profession). Schools of nursing rarely used outward-facing megaphone hashtags. There was no discernible shift in the way that schools of nursing used hashtags after the publication of The Woodhull Study Revisited. Conclusions Top schools of nursing use hashtags more like intercoms to communicate with other nurses rather than megaphones to invite attention from journalists, policy makers, and the public. If schools of nursing want the media to showcase their faculty members as experts, they need to increase their use of megaphone hashtags to connect the work of their faculty with topics of interest to the public.

show abstract

How Health Care Workers Wield Influence Through Twitter Hashtags: Retrospective Cross-sectional Study of the Gun Violence and COVID-19 Public Health Crises

Cited by 39 publications

References 24 publications

The State of Mind of Health Care Professionals in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Text Analysis Study of Twitter Discourses

The State of Mind of Health Care Professionals in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Text Analysis Study of Twitter Discourses

Partisan Differences in Twitter Language Among US Legislators During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Study

Comparison of Intercom and Megaphone Hashtags Using Four Years of Tweets From the Top 44 Schools of Nursing: Thematic Analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About