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Using Twitter to Elicit the Patient Perspective

Received: 13 November 2013     Published: 20 December 2013
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Abstract

The social media platform, Twitter, was used to understand the patient perspective on experiences with asthma. A content analysis of 844 tweets was conducted. The sample of tweets was obtained by performing a keyword search over the course of a one week period. The categories for coding were established based on a literature review. The most frequently occurring theme to emerge in the data was general disease state (n=115, 13.7%). The next most frequently found themes included triggers of asthma (n=100, 11.8 %) and general treatment (n=95, 11.2%). Asthma was often discussed in a joking manner and tweets were utilized to share medical information. Results proved that Twitter can serve as a valuable research tool to understand how people communicate about health topics.

Published in American Journal of Health Research (Volume 2, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajhr.20140201.11
Page(s) 1-8
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2013. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Asthma, Twitter, Patient Perspective, Health, Content Analysis, Social Media

References
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[4] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Vital Signs: Asthma Prevalence, Disease Characteristics, and Self-Management Education — United States, 2001–2009. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (CDC) vol, 60(17),2011.
[5] R.J. Adams, E.T. d’Espaigne, E. Dal Grande, A. Daly, R.E. Ruffin, A.W. Taylor, and D.H. Wilson, Psychological factors and asthma quality of life: a population based study, Thorax, vol. 59, pp. 930-935, 2004.
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[8] M. Leander, E.Lampa, C.Janson, K.Svärdsudd, M. Uddenfeldt, A. Rask, and A. Andersen, Determinants for a low health-related quality of life in asthmatics, Upsala Journal of Medical Sciences, vol. 117, pp. 57–66, 2012.
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[11] A. Gillissen, Patients’ adherence in asthma, Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, vol. 58, pp. 205-222, 2007.
[12] C.S. Ulrik, et al, The patient’s perspective: adherence or non-adherence to asthma controller therapy? Journal of Asthma, vol. 43, pp. 701-704, 2006.
[13] NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement 2006-2012, Patient Perspectives, 2012.
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[15] S. McPhail, and T. Haines, Response shift, recall bias and their effect on measuring change in health- related quality of life amongst older hospital patients, Health and Quality of Life Outcome, vol. 8(65), 2010.
[16] F. J. Gravetter, and L.B. Forzano, Research methods for the behavioral sciences (4th Edition), Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. From: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov /health/health-topics/topics/asthma/treatment.html
[17] K. Sajadi, and H. Goldman, Social networks lack useful content for incontinence, Urology, vol. 78, pp. 764–767, 2011.
[18] K. Ogburn, E.Messias, and P. Buckley, New-age patient communications through social networks, General Hospital Psychiatry, vol. 33, pp. 1-3, 2011.
[19] J. Kietzmann, K.Hermkens, I. McCarthy, and B. Silvestre, Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media, Business Horizons, vol. 54, pp. 241—251, 2011.
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Katherine A Margolis, Laura Catalusci, Jacqueline Cleary. (2013). Using Twitter to Elicit the Patient Perspective. American Journal of Health Research, 2(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.20140201.11

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    ACS Style

    Katherine A Margolis; Laura Catalusci; Jacqueline Cleary. Using Twitter to Elicit the Patient Perspective. Am. J. Health Res. 2013, 2(1), 1-8. doi: 10.11648/j.ajhr.20140201.11

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    AMA Style

    Katherine A Margolis, Laura Catalusci, Jacqueline Cleary. Using Twitter to Elicit the Patient Perspective. Am J Health Res. 2013;2(1):1-8. doi: 10.11648/j.ajhr.20140201.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajhr.20140201.11,
      author = {Katherine A Margolis and Laura Catalusci and Jacqueline Cleary},
      title = {Using Twitter to Elicit the Patient Perspective},
      journal = {American Journal of Health Research},
      volume = {2},
      number = {1},
      pages = {1-8},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajhr.20140201.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.20140201.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajhr.20140201.11},
      abstract = {The social media platform, Twitter, was used to understand the patient perspective on experiences with asthma. A content analysis of 844 tweets was conducted. The sample of tweets was obtained by performing a keyword search over the course of a one week period.  The categories for coding were established based on a literature review. The most frequently occurring theme to emerge in the data was general disease state (n=115, 13.7%). The next most frequently found themes included triggers of asthma (n=100, 11.8 %) and general treatment (n=95, 11.2%). Asthma was often discussed in a joking manner and tweets were utilized to share medical information.  Results proved that Twitter can serve as a valuable research tool to understand how people communicate about health topics.},
     year = {2013}
    }
    

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    AB  - The social media platform, Twitter, was used to understand the patient perspective on experiences with asthma. A content analysis of 844 tweets was conducted. The sample of tweets was obtained by performing a keyword search over the course of a one week period.  The categories for coding were established based on a literature review. The most frequently occurring theme to emerge in the data was general disease state (n=115, 13.7%). The next most frequently found themes included triggers of asthma (n=100, 11.8 %) and general treatment (n=95, 11.2%). Asthma was often discussed in a joking manner and tweets were utilized to share medical information.  Results proved that Twitter can serve as a valuable research tool to understand how people communicate about health topics.
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Author Information
  • InVentiv Health Newtown, PA

  • Draftfcb Healthcare New York, NY

  • Jersey City, USA

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