A New Study Shows How Twitter Can Monitor Disease Outbreaks
A recent study by a computer science class from Brigham Young University has found that Twitter could be used to track the outbreak of diseases.The researchers sampled 24 million tweets from 10 million unique users, discovering that 15% of the tweets could be located using GPS or information from the users profile.
In fact, only 2% of the tweets in the survey contained GPS data, far less than suggested by survey data, a figure that surprised BYU professor Christophe Giraud-Carrier:
“There is this disconnect that’s well known between what you think you are doing and what you are actually doing,” Giraud-Carrier said.
Each tweet was then searched for words such as “fever,” “flu” and “coughing”, to find out whether flu had been contracted by people in a city or state.
“One of the things this paper shows is that the distribution of tweets is about the same as the distribution of the population so we get a good representation of the country” said Giraud-Carrier. “That’s another nice validity point especially if you’re going to look at things like diseases spreading.”
To monitor outbreaks on Twitter, says Scott Burton, lead author of the study, health officials can use the GPS and keyword information:
“The first step is to look for posts about symptoms tied to actual location indicators and start to plot points on a map” said Burton. “You could also look to see if people are talking about actual diagnoses versus self-reported symptoms, such as ‘The doctor says I have the flu.’”
The advantage of using Twitter to monitor epidemics is obvious: the speed of the service provides information in real-time, speed which could help health officials warn those living close to an outbreak:
“If people from a particular area are reporting similar symptoms on Twitter, public health officials could put out a warning to providers to gear up for something” said Professor Josh West who collaborated on the project. “Under conditions like that, it could be very useful.”
Professor Giraud-Carrier (@ChristopheGC) and his students have published the study in an issue of the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Do you think Twitter could be used to monitor epidemics?
Contact us on Twitter or leave your comments below.
Will Sigsworth
Follow us @SocialMediaF & @WillAtSMF
www.socialmediafrontiers.com
A New Study Shows How Twitter Can Monitor Disease Outbreaks
![]()
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Friday, January 25, 2013
Rating:
Unknown
Keeping you up to date on social media, digital marketing, apps, news & reviews. Social media, and digital marketing as a whole, are rapidly and constantly changing, adapting to new developments at an ever increasing rate. Just keeping up to date can be a nightmare. Our team of writers know their field, and keep an ear to the ground. We aim to keep you informed of all recent developments in the online world, and teach you a little something along the way. So whether you just want to stay connected, or gain some knowledge for yourself, the Social Songbird will keep on singing! More articles are posted every day so keep checking back! Join the discussion on Twitter - #SocialSongbird Or contact us directly - @SocialSongbird_
Entrepreneur, international speaker on Social Media Marketing. First one in the UK to write and speak in conferences about Twitter as a marketing tool. Consultant to Corporate Companies, Government Organizations, Marketing Managers and Business Owners.
Aspiring novelist with a passion for fantasy and crime thrillers. He hopes to one day drop that 'aspiring' prefix. He started as a writer and soon after he was made Executive Editor and Manager of the team at Social Songbird. A position he held for 5 years.
Adrienne is a passionate writer with experience in editing, content creation, and social media marketing. She’s a lover of animals, helping others improve their writing, and 2000s pop culture.
Musician, audio technician, professional tutor and a Cambridge university English student. Interested in writing, politics and obsessed with reading.
Recently graduated with a BA in English Literature from the University of Exeter, and he is about to study an MA in Journalism at the University of Sheffield. He is an aspiring journalist and novelist; in his free time he enjoys playing chess, listening to music and taking long walks through nature.
Lucy is an undergraduate BSc Politics and International Relations student at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Anna Coopey is a 4th year UG student in Classics at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. She is a keen writer and researcher on a number of topics, varying from Modern Greek literature to revolutionary theory.
Ellie is a recent BA English Literature graduate and aspiring publisher with a passion for writing. Her favourite pastimes include reading and shopping.