JMIR infodemiology最新文献

Background: The media has immense power in shaping public narratives surrounding sensitive topics such as substance use. Its portrayals can unintentionally fuel harmful stereotypes and stigma, negatively impacting individuals struggling with addiction, influencing policy decisions, and hindering broader public health efforts.

Objective: This study aimed to examine how the regional newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, covered events related to illicit drug use between 2013 and 2022, focusing on linguistic patterns and themes associated with specific types of substances.

Methods: We collected a dataset of 157,476 articles published in The Philadelphia Inquirer between 2013 and 2022 and categorized mentioned substances into 8 classes: stimulants, narcotics, cannabis, hallucinogens, depressants, designer drugs, drugs of concern, and treatment medications. From these 157,476 articles, we identified 3661 (2.32%) that mentioned at least 1 substance with potential for misuse. Using dynamic topic modeling, we analyzed thematic evolution in coverage across different drug classes. We then applied aspect-based sentiment analysis to extract the most significant phrases mentioned in each distinct drug class annually and examined the sentiments around these aspects to understand shifting discourse patterns.

Results: Cannabis (1575/3661, 43.02%) and narcotics (1361/3661, 37.17%) dominated the coverage, with 2018 showing peak drug-related reporting (666/3661, 18.19%). Our substance co-occurrence analysis revealed that heroin was most frequently discussed alongside treatment medications (methadone, naloxone, and buprenorphine), reflecting evolving approaches to opioid use disorder. Topic modeling revealed distinct themes across drug classes: legislative and medical aspects dominated cannabis coverage, while narcotics coverage focused heavily on overdose deaths and safe injection sites, particularly during 2017 to 2018. Stimulant coverage centered on feature news and crime-related reporting, while treatment coverage showed an increasing focus on overdose prevention by 2021. The aspect-based sentiment analysis showed that 74.3% (165/222) of extracted aspects were portrayed negatively across all drug classes, with narcotics maintaining consistently negative sentiment throughout the period. However, some drug classes showed notable evolution: hallucinogens demonstrated a marked shift in sentiment score (SS) from negative coverage in 2013 (-0.79 SS) to positive coverage of therapeutic applications by 2021 (+0.47 SS), while cannabis coverage reflected complex societal debates, with industry and business aspects showing strong positive sentiment score peaks (0.64 SS in 2019) even as legislation and policy aspects remained volatile (-0.76 SS in 2013 to 0.61 SS in 2019 and declining to -0.31 SS by 2022).

Conclusions: Our analysis revealed a predominance of negat

Unlabelled: As we move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, the risk of future infodemics remains significant, driven by emerging health crises and the increasing influence of artificial intelligence in the information ecosystem. During periods of apparent stability, proactive efforts to advance infodemiology are essential for enhancing preparedness and improving public health outcomes. This requires a thorough examination of the foundations of this evolving discipline, particularly in understanding how to accurately identify an infodemic at the appropriate time and scale, and how to distinguish it from other processes of viral information spread, both within and outside the realm of public health. In this paper, we integrate expertise from data science and public health to examine the key differences between information production during an infodemic and viral information spread. We explore both clear and subtle distinctions, including context and contingency (ie, the association of an infodemic and viral information spread with a health crisis); information dynamics in terms of volume, spread, and predictability; the role of misinformation and information voids; societal impact; and mitigation strategies. By analyzing these differences, we highlight challenges and open questions. These include whether an infodemic is solely associated with pandemics or whether it could arise from other health emergencies; if infodemics are limited to health-related issues or if they could emerge from crises initially unrelated to health (like climate events); and whether infodemics are exclusively global phenomena or if they can occur on national or local scales. Finally, we propose directions for future quantitative research to help the scientific community more robustly differentiate between these phenomena and develop tailored management strategies.

Background: Social media is a vital tool for health organizations, enabling them to share evidence-based information, educate the public, correct misinformation, and support a more informed and healthier society.

Objective: This study aimed to categorize health organizations' content on social media into topics; examine public engagement, sentiment, and emotional responses to these topics; and identify gaps in fear between health organizations' messages and the public response.

Methods: Real data were collected from the official Instagram accounts of health organizations worldwide. The BERTopic algorithm for topic modeling was used to categorize health organizations' posts into distinct topics. For each identified topic, we analyzed the engagement metrics (number of comments and likes) of posts categorized under the same topic, calculating the average engagement received. We examined the sentiment and emotional content of both posts and responses within the same topic, providing insights into the distributions of sentiment and emotions for each topic. Special attention was given to identifying emotions, such as fear, expressed in the posts and responses. In addition, a linguistic analysis and an analysis of sentiments and emotions over time were conducted.

Results: A total of 6082 posts and 82,982 comments were collected from the official Instagram accounts of 8 health organizations. The study revealed that topics related to COVID-19, vaccines, and humanitarian crises (such as the Ukraine conflict and the war in Gaza) generated the highest engagement. Our sentiment analysis of the responses to health organizations' posts showed that topics related to vaccines and monkeypox generated the highest percentage of negative responses. Fear was the dominant emotion expressed in the posts' text, while the public's responses showed more varied emotions, with anger notably high in discussions around vaccines. Gaps were observed between the level of fear conveyed in posts published by health organizations and in the fear conveyed in the public's responses to such posts, especially regarding mask wearing during COVID-19 and the influenza vaccine.

Conclusions: This study underscores the importance of transparent communication that considers the emotional and sentiment-driven responses of the public on social media, particularly regarding vaccines. Understanding the psychological and social dynamics associated with public interaction with health information online can help health organizations achieve public health goals, fostering trust, countering misinformation, and promoting informed health behavior.

Background: Nutritional yeast, an inactive form of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, has recently become increasingly popular as a food supplement and healthy ingredient, especially among individuals following plant-based diets. It is valued for its health benefits and high content of B vitamins, minerals, and protein. Social media has enabled people to share information and personal experiences at an unprecedented level, further amplifying conversations around health and nutrition. With the rise of social media, data mining techniques like natural language processing and machine learning are increasingly used for analyzing the large amounts of information generated on these platforms.

Objective: This study aimed to analyze social media data from the United States and France to identify the most frequently discussed topics among nutritional yeast consumers. The objective was to fill gaps in our understanding of the perceptions, experiences, and usage trends related to nutritional yeast.

Methods: This study was retrospective, using social media data geolocated in the United States and France, posted by users discussing nutritional yeast between December 2017 and September 2023. Data cleaning and filtering were done using natural language processing methods and specific algorithms. Biterm topic modeling was applied to identify the most frequently discussed topics.

Results: A total of 36,642 posts written by 28,069 users discussing nutritional yeast were identified across 1039 publicly available online sources. This included 34,292 posts from the United States (26,154 users across 994 sources) and 2350 from France (n=1915 users across 45 sources). Twitter was the most commonly used platform in both countries, accounting for 39.6% of posts in the United States (13,587/34,292) and 84.3% in France (1982/2350). In the United States, conversations centered around the role of nutritional yeast role as a vegan nutrient source (n=12,345, 36.0%). Several users highlighted its culinary versatility as a natural seasoning (n=8093, 23.6%) and its health and skin benefits (n=6173, 18.0%). In France, discussions frequently focused on nutritional yeast's use in dietary supplement routines in various forms (n=1177, 50.1%), emphasizing its benefits alongside other supplements such as castor oil, particularly noted for effects on nails and hair (n=928, 39.5%).

Conclusions: This social media listening study identified the perceptions and preferences of nutritional yeast users in France and the United States. Researchers and health care professionals can reflect on these findings to investigate the potential health benefits of nutritional yeast for specific groups and its long-term impact on different diets and lifestyles. Marketers may also use this information to create customized strategies that better align with the preferences and needs of each market.

Background: Hypertrophic scars (HTSs) are a predominant condition after burns and trauma, and it causes severe physiological and psychological problems. TikTok (Douyin in Chinese), a popular platform for sharing short videos, has shown the potential to spread health information, including information related to HTSs. Educating the public to obtain correct information is important to reduce the incidence of physiological and psychological problems caused by HTSs. However, the quality and reliability of HTS-related video content on TikTok in mainland China have not been thoroughly studied.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the content and quality of short videos related to HTSs on the Chinese version of TikTok (Douyin) and explore the factors related to their quality, providing valuable insights for health information dissemination.

Methods: We collected a sample of 153 TikTok videos in Chinese related to HTSs and categorized them according to video source and content. We evaluated the video content using a coding schema, and a hexagonal radar schema was used to intuitively display the spotlight and weight of each aspect of the videos. We evaluated quality using 4 standardized tools: the modified DISCERN (mDISCERN) questionnaire, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Global Quality Scale (GQS), and the Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct. We also explored the potential relationship between video quality and characteristics.

Results: The analysis showed that health care professionals uploaded all videos about treating HTSs, which matched the hexagonal radar model analysis findings. The quality assessment scores for the Journal of the American Medical Association, GQS, mDISCERN, and the Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct had median values of 1 (IQR 1-2), 2 (IQR 2-3), 2 (IQR 2-3), and 3 (IQR 3-4), respectively, indicating a need to improve the quality and reliability of videos on HTSs. In addition, high-quality videos were more popular, based on metrics such as likes, comments, favorites, and shares (P<.001). Interestingly, the time when the videos were uploaded positively correlated with GQS and mDISCERN scores (r=0.393; P<.001 and r=0.273; P<.001), while the video length did not significantly correlate with evaluation scores (P=.78, P=.20, P=.07, and P=.04).

Conclusions: The quality of TikTok videos related to HTSs is generally moderate. Users should exercise caution when seeking information on HTSs from TikTok. It is advisable to choose videos uploaded by health care professionals from the burn department and the burn plastic surgery department, and in the Chinese context, those produced in first-tier cities and emerging first-tier cities.

Background: Transgender and gender diverse people often turn to online platforms for information and support regarding gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT); however, analysis of this social media content remains scarce.

Objective: We characterized GAHT-related videos on TikTok to highlight the implications relevant to GAHT prescribers.

Methods: We used a web scraper to identify TikTok videos posted under the hashtags #genderaffirminghormonetherapy and #genderaffirminghormones as of November 2023. We identified recurrent themes via qualitative content analysis and assessed health education videos with the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for Audiovisual Materials (PEMAT-A/V) scale and a modified Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose (CRAAP) test.

Results: Out of 69 videos extracted, 71% (49/69) were created by GAHT users, 24.6% (17/69) were created by health care workers, and 21.7% (15/69) were created to provide health education. Themes included physical changes on testosterone, GAHT access, and combating misinformation and stigma surrounding GAHT. Health education videos scored highly on PEMAT-A/V items assessing understandability (mean 88.3%, SD 11.3%) and lower on actionability (mean 60.0%, SD 45.8%). On the CRAAP test, videos scored highly on the relevance, authority, and purpose domains but lower on the currency and accuracy domains.

Conclusions: Discussions of GAHT on TikTok build community among transgender and gender diverse users, provide a platform for digital activism and resistance against legislation that limits GAHT access, and foster patient-provider dialogue. Educational videos are highly understandable and are created by reliable sources, but they vary in terms of currency and quality of supporting evidence, and they lack in actionability.

Background: In the past decade, hashtag feminism has emerged in Mexico as a prevalent strategy to build social movements against gender-based violence (GBV). For example, during the global "16 Days of Activism Against GBV" campaign held between November 25 and December 10 each year, Mexico-based nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) turn to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share messages. Despite this prevalence, there is limited research on the type of information shared by these NGO activists on social media and the public's engagement with these messages.

Objective: This study aims to explore the themes covered by Mexican NGOs on X and examine what types of messages related to GBV potentially resonated more with the public.

Methods: We collated and reviewed posts (commonly known as tweets) published in Spanish on the platform X by Mexico-based NGOs between November 25 and December 10 of 2020, 2021, and 2022, a period when digital interactions increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. We then extracted posts using the following 4 hashtags: #16días, #16DiasdeActivismo, or #16DíasdeActivismo; #25N or #25Noviembre; #DiaNaranja or #DíaNaranja; and #PintaElMundoDeNaranja. We subsequently assessed the number of likes each post had and retained the top 200 posts from each year with the highest number of likes. We used the iterative content analysis process and the inductive 6-step qualitative thematic analysis method in NVivo software to code and analyze the final 600 posts.

Results: Five themes emerged from the 16 Days of Activism Against GBV campaigns, covering both knowledge-sharing and activism-generating messages as follows: (1) activism and how to be an activist, (2) types of GBV most commonly highlighted in posts, (3) changing public discourse surrounding GBV, (4) GBV as a violation of human rights, and (5) the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on GBV. Most of the messages on these posts exclusively mentioned women and younger girls, while a few included adolescents. Gaps in the representation of vulnerable populations were also found.

Conclusions: The posts from this campaign that were highly liked by the public reflect some of the most significant societal issues currently present in the country. Our results could help guide further GBV campaigns. Still, further research related to hashtag feminism by Mexico-based NGOs on GBV is needed to understand the population that NGOs reach and how the messages shared on these campaigns translate into activism on online and offline social media platforms.

Background: Social media holds an increasingly significant position in contemporary society, wherein evolving public perspectives are mirrored by changing information. However, there remains a lack of comprehensive analysis regarding the nature and evolution of dental health care information on Chinese social media platforms (SMPs) despite extensive user engagement and voluminous content.

Objective: This study aimed to probe into the nature and evolution of dental health care information on Chinese SMPs from 2018 to 2022, providing valuable insights into the evolving digital public perception of dental health for dental practitioners, investigators, and educators.

Methods: This study was conducted on 3 major Chinese SMPs: Weibo, WeChat, and Zhihu. Data from March 1 to 31 in 2018, 2020, and 2022 were sampled to construct a social media original database (ODB), from which the most popular long-text posts (N=180) were selected to create an analysis database (ADB). Natural language processing (NLP) tools were used to assist tracking topic trends, and word frequencies were analyzed. The DISCERN health information quality assessment questionnaire was used for information quality evaluation.

Results: The number of Weibo posts in the ODB increased approximately fourfold during the observation period, with discussion of orthodontic topics showing the fastest growth, surpassing that of general dentistry after 2020. In the ADB, the engagement of content on Weibo and Zhihu also displayed an upward trend. The overall information quality of long-text posts on the 3 platforms was moderate or low. Of the long-text posts, 143 (79.4%) were written by nonprofessionals, and 105 (58.3%) shared personal medical experiences. On Weibo and WeChat, long-text posts authored by health care professionals had higher DISCERN scores (Weibo P=.04; WeChat P=.02), but there was a negative correlation between engagement and DISCERN scores (Weibo tau-b [τb]=-0.45, P=.01; WeChat τb=-0.30, P=.02).

Conclusions: There was a significant increase in the dissemination and evolution of public interest in dental health care information on Chinese social media during 2018-2022. However, the quality of the most popular long-text posts was rated as moderate or low, which may mislead patients and the public.

Background: Social media has been extensively used by the public to seek information and share views on health issues. Recently, the proper and off-label use of semaglutide drugs for weight loss has attracted huge media attention and led to temporary supply shortages.

Objective: The aim of this study was to perform a content analysis on English YouTube (Google) videos related to semaglutide.

Methods: YouTube was searched with the words semaglutide, Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus. The first 30 full-length videos (videos without a time limit) and 30 shorts (videos that are no longer than 1 minute) resulting from each search word were recorded. After discounting duplicates resulting from multiple searches, a total of 96 full-length videos and 93 shorts were analyzed. Video content was evaluated by 3 tools, that is, a custom checklist, a Global Quality Score (GQS), and Modified DISCERN. Readability and sentiment of the transcripts were also assessed.

Results: There was no significant difference in the mean number of views between full-length videos and shorts (mean 288,563.1, SD 513,598.3 vs mean 188,465.2, SD 780,376.2, P=.30). The former had better content quality in terms of GQS, Modified DISCERN, and the number of mentioned points from the custom checklist (all P<.001). The transcript readability of both types of videos was at a fairly easy level and mainly had a neutral tone. Full-length videos from health sources had a higher content quality in terms of GQS and Modified DISCERN (both P<.001) than their counterparts.

Conclusions: The analyzed videos lacked coverage of several important aspects, including the lack of long-term data, the persistence of side effects due to the long half-life of semaglutide, and the risk of counterfeit drugs. It is crucial for the public to be aware that videos cannot replace consultations with physicians.