You Are What You Tweet

“You are what you tweet!” That is the title of a newly released research study that revealed an interesting public health view of social networking. In the high-speed computer age in which we now reside, it’s important to remember that much information is commonly and voluntarily revealed through postings to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and many other such sites. 

In July, Johns Hopkins University released a study that discovered “tweets” could potentially help identify public health trends across the country and throughout the world. The recent study suggested that Twitter in particular could help identify health patterns of cancer, obesity, allergies, tobacco use, insurance needs, and much more. People tweet a plethora of information, many of which tend to revolve around the health of themselves and their families. By monitoring the tweeting of specific words or phrases provided real-time information on population health by region, state, and locality.

Several examples from this study showed that traditional health monitoring systems did eventually catch up to the information that Twitter tweets revealed so much faster. Influenza was one such piece of information. The study showed that people tweeting how sick they felt or that they had caught the flu provided quicker tracking information than current models used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, the article found that the Twitter tracking had a 96 percent correlation with the CDC’s flu monitoring system. The only difference was that the tweets were more quickly revealed than the CDC’s system. Furthermore, the state level tracking system was also highly correlated to Twitter posts.

In relation to influenza tracking information, Twitter users were posting their use of antibiotics for the flu, which indicated a need for improved public education on the overuse of antibiotics. Antibiotics are to be used for bacterial infections. Influenza is a viral infection and, therefore, it is useless for killing the flu bug. In this case, the tweets could lead to improved public health awareness campaigns.

Insomnia was also highly reported via Twitter, as was the use of Benadryl to combat the problem. The revelation for public health professionals showed that over-the-counter drugs are often used for off-label ailments.

Aches and pains were identified frequently among Twitter posters. Among those revealing headaches or similar trouble tweeted the word “ibuprofen” most frequently (39 percent of the time for minor headaches; 49 percent for more severe pain). Such information could show the self-medication behaviors of the population. Such tweets also include the use of stronger medications such as codeine and Vicodin.

Finally, obesity and other food-related health concerns could all be tracked through postings related to exercising, lack of exercising, cheating on a diet, eating fresh fruits, going to the farmer’s market, eating fast food, binge eating, and the list goes on. Social media monitoring could potentially lead to improved health education and interventions to reverse the growing obesity rates.

The take-home message of such a study is two-fold. For public health professionals, it offers yet another monitoring method to help track trends and build needed health campaigns to improve the health of the population. For the general public, your tweets are helpful in revealing your health needs, health preferences, and health conditions. The Johns Hopkins University researchers ask that people continue to post at will, because it may actually be one of the fastest health monitoring systems currently available today.

References

Paul, M. J., & Dredze, M. (2011). You are what you tweet: Analyzing Twitter for public health.  Human Language Technology Center of Excellence, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

Sneiderman, P. (2011). You are what you tweet: Tracking public health trends by Twitter. Retrieved July 18, 2011 from http://gazette.jhu.edu/?p=8356.

Villarica, H. (2011). 10 things we can learn from your health-related Twitter rants. Retrieved July 18, 2011 from http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/07/10-things-we-can-learn-from-your-health-related-twitter-rants/242002/#slide1.