Social media increasingly used to gauge public health - amednews.com - 0 views
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When Marcel Salathé, PhD, and his colleagues wanted to know the public's thoughts about the influenza A(H1N1) vaccine in 2009, they turned to Twitter.
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The researchers examined more than 300,000 tweets that mentioned the H1N1 immunization and projected vaccine rates based on Twitter sentiments.
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Their findings were similar to data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gathered through the more traditional approach of phone surveys.
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growing trend among researchers and health officials to use social media to examine public health and improve it.
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e when people are happiest -- in the morning and on weekends. A study that appeared online Oct. 3 in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine looked at Facebook messages to help identify college students with drinking problems.
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using social media for research offers real-time information on a large group of people across the globe. Social networking sites also enable the medical community to distribute health information quickly and inexpensively to the public.
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During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the CDC turned to its Facebook page to educate the public about the virus and the importance of getting vaccinated against it. CDC experts monitored social media chatter on H1N1, which allowed them to quickly correct misinformation. One such rumor the CDC squashed was that people could develop the illness by eating pork.