scholarly journals Population subgroup differences in the use of a COVID-19 chatbot

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura C. Schubel ◽  
Deliya B. Wesley ◽  
Ethan Booker ◽  
John Lock ◽  
Raj M. Ratwani
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Subgroup Differences ◽  
Symptom Screening ◽  
Population Subgroup

AbstractCOVID-19 chatbots are widely used to screen for symptoms and disseminate information about the virus, yet little is known about the population subgroups that interact with this technology and the specific features that are used. An analysis of 1,000,740 patients invited to use a COVID-19 chatbot, 69,451 (6.94%) of which agreed to participate, shows differences in chatbot feature use by gender, race, and age. These results can inform future public health COVID-19 symptom screening and information dissemination strategies.

Data-driven inferences of agency-level risk and response communication on COVID-19 through social media-based interactions

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 59-82
Author(s):  
Md Ashraf Ahmed, PhD Candidate ◽  
Arif Mohaimin Sadri, PhD ◽  
M. Hadi Amini, PhD, DEng
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Topic Model ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Online Social Media

Risk perception and risk averting behaviors of public agencies in the emergence and spread of COVID-19 can be retrieved through online social media (Twitter), and such interactions can be echoed in other information outlets. This study collected time-sensitive online social media data and analyzed patterns of health risk communication of public health and emergency agencies in the emergence and spread of novel coronavirus using data-driven methods. The major focus is toward understanding how policy-making agencies communicate risk and response information through social media during a pandemic and influence community response—ie, timing of lockdown, timing of reopening, etc.—and disease outbreak indicators—ie, number of confirmed cases and number of deaths. Twitter data of six major public organizations (1,000-4,500 tweets per organization) are collected from February 21, 2020 to June 6, 2020. Several machine learning algorithms, including dynamic topic model and sentiment analysis, are applied over time to identify the topic dynamics over the specific timeline of the pandemic. Organizations emphasized on various topics—eg, importance of wearing face mask, home quarantine, understanding the symptoms, social distancing and contact tracing, emerging community transmission, lack of personal protective equipment, COVID-19 testing and medical supplies, effect of tobacco, pandemic stress management, increasing hospitalization rate, upcoming hurricane season, use of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 treatment, maintaining hygiene, and the role of healthcare podcast in different timeline. The findings can benefit emergency management, policymakers, and public health agencies to identify targeted information dissemination policies for public with diverse needs based on how local, federal, and international agencies reacted to COVID-19.

Broadband for Health in Developing Countries

2011 ◽  
pp. 581-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aradhana Srivastava
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Health Providers ◽  
Policy Direction ◽  
Immense Potential

This chapter highlights the major issues in the use of broadband technologies in health care in developing countries. The use of Internet technologies in the health sector has immense potential in developing countries, especially in the context of public health programs. Some of the main uses of information and communication technologies (ICT) in health include remote consultations and diagnosis, information dissemination and networking between health providers, user groups, and forums, Internet-based disease surveillance and identification of target groups for health interventions, facilitation of health research and support to health care delivery, and administration. The technology has immense potential, but is also constrained by lack of policy direction, problems with access to technology, and lack of suitable infrastructure in developing nations. However, given its crucial role in public health, comprehensive efforts are required from all concerned stakeholders if universal e-health is to become a reality.

Community ready! Assessing and meeting the needs of parents in Arlington County, VA

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Marina S. Moses, DrPH, MS ◽  
Donna S. Caruso, RN, MSN ◽  
Timothy G. Otten, MPH ◽  
Sam Simmens, PhD ◽  
Tee L. Guidotti, MD, MPH
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Emergency Preparedness ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Public Health Preparedness ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Health Emergency Preparedness

In March 2006, three elementary schools, composed of at least 50 percent Latino populations, were selected in Arlington, VA, to participate in a multitiered survey to evaluate parents’ emergency preparedness needs. This article describes how to identify vulnerable populations and tailor specific information and services to their public health needs. An oral survey was administered to parents in their preferred language, English or Spanish, regarding their questions, concerns, preferences, and needs pertaining to public health emergency preparedness. Major themes that emerged included the need for language and culturally sensitive preparedness information; the merit of using established community venues for parents to gather; and the importance of using group specific preferred modes of information dissemination. Significant differences were observed between English speakers and Spanish speakers’ perceived vulnerability, level of preparedness, and preferences for acquiring information. An important similarity that presented itself was that all parents surveyed regard the public school system as safe, trustworthy, and best suited for providing public health preparedness information to the community. Based on this study, an innovative model is being developed called Community Ready! which will be an all-hazards approach to public health preparedness outreach that will be reproducible in other municipalities and school districts.

Health Promotion at the Ballpark

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonni C. Hodges
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
New York ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Health Priorities ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Local Public Health ◽  
Collegiate Baseball

The arrival of a new summer collegiate baseball league franchise to a small central New York city was seen as an opportunity for health promotion. The initiative was set up to explore two overarching questions: (1) Are summer collegiate baseball events acceptable to local public health organizations as viable places for health promotion activities addressing local health issues? (2) Are summer collegiate baseball organizations amenable to health promotion activities built in to their fan and/or player experiences? Planning and implementation were guided by precede–proceed, social cognitive theory, social marketing, and diffusion of innovations constructs. Environmental changes were implemented to support healthy eating and nontobacco use by players and fans; four health awareness nights were implemented at home games corresponding to local public health priorities and included public service announcements, between inning quizzes, information dissemination at concession and team market locations, and special guests. Sales and fan feedback support mostly healthy concession offerings and a tobacco-free ballpark; postseason evaluations from team staff and public health partners support continuing the trials of this sports event as a venue for health promotion.

scholarly journals An Evaluation of Malaria Control Practices by Caregivers of Under-5 Children in Calabar South Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (07) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agbenin Andrew ◽  
Edem A. Akpan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Malaria Control ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Roll Back Malaria ◽  
Cross River ◽  
Cross River State ◽  
Under Five ◽  
Under Five Children

Background: Despite many years of research and concerted efforts at control of malaria, the achievement of a malaria free world remains a dream. The prevalence of the disease continues to increase in many parts of the world especially among under-5 children and pregnant women. However, in Nigeria, the scale up of malaria control strategies has produced recognizable public health impact in several communities and this has led to the development of new tools and strategies, including integrated approach to control, aimed at further consolidating malaria control goals. Objectives: To evaluate malaria control practices by Caregivers of under-five children in Calabar South LGA, Cross River State, Nigeria. Methods: A cross sectional study involving the administration of questionnaires to 440 Caregivers of under-five children selected through a multi-stage sampling and simple random sampling techniques. The administration of the questionnaires to the respondents was used to evaluate malaria control practices by Caregivers of under-5 children in Calabar South LGA since the launch of the Roll back Malaria (RBM) Program in Nigeria in 1998. Results: The sociodemographic characteristics of respondents are as follows: 35.3% of respondents fell within the age brackets of 26-31 years, 85% were married, 56.3% had, at least, secondary school education, 35.8% were traders, 98.5% were Christians, 40.8% were medium income earners, 56.3% had 3-5 persons per household. Evaluation of Caregivers in the LGA on knowledge of malaria control practices, show they had good knowledge on strategies to control malaria but many of them did not practice them in their homes. The very few that were involved in the practice of malaria control activities rely on vertical approaches to control instead of integrated malaria control efforts as advocated during the launch of the RBM program in Nigeria in 1998. Conclusions: The state Ministry of Health, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria, through the Department of Public Health, needs to invest more on education, communication and information dissemination strategies to reach Caregivers of under-5 children to adopt integrated approach to malaria control instead of using isolated vertical approach if they are to achieve the malaria control targets set by RBM and MDGs for under-5 children in Nigeria in general and Calabar South LGA in particular.

scholarly journals Designing Effective eHealth Interventions for Underserved Groups: Five Lessons From a Decade of eHealth Intervention Design and Deployment (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund WJ Lee ◽  
Rachel F McCloud ◽  
Kasisomayajula Viswanath
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Web Portals ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Health Apps ◽  
Ehealth Intervention ◽  
Underserved Groups

UNSTRUCTURED Despite the proliferation of eHealth interventions, such as web portals, for health information dissemination or the use of mobile apps and wearables for health monitoring, research has shown that underserved groups do not benefit proportionately from these eHealth interventions. This is largely because of usability issues and the lack of attention to the broader structural, physical, and psychosocial barriers to technology adoption and use. The objective of this paper is to draw lessons from a decade of experience in designing different user-centered eHealth interventions (eg, web portals and health apps) to inform future work in leveraging technology to address health disparities. We draw these lessons from a series of interventions from the work we have done over 15 years in the Viswanath laboratory at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, focusing on three projects that used web portals and health apps targeted toward underserved groups. The projects were the following: <i>Click to Connect</i>, which was a community-based eHealth intervention that aimed to improve internet skills and health literacy among underserved groups by providing home access to high-speed internet, computer, and internet training classes, as well as a dedicated health web portal with ongoing technical support; <i>PLANET MassCONECT</i>, which was a knowledge translation project that built capacity among community-based organizations in Boston, Lawrence, and Worcester in Massachusetts to adopt evidence-based health promotion programs; and <i>Smartphone App for Public Health</i>, which was a mobile health research that facilitated both participatory (eg, surveys) and passive data (eg, geolocations and web-browsing behaviors) collection for the purpose of understanding tobacco message exposure in individuals’ built environment. Through our work, we distilled five key principles for researchers aiming to design eHealth interventions for underserved groups. They are as follows: develop a strategic road map to address communication inequalities (ie, a concrete action plan to identify the barriers faced by underserved groups and customize specific solutions to each of them), engage multiple stakeholders from the beginning for the long haul, design with usability—readability and navigability—in mind, build privacy safeguards into eHealth interventions and communicate privacy–utility tradeoffs in simplicity, and strive for an optimal balance between open science aspirations and protection of underserved groups.

Twitter activity about treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic: case studies of remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, and convalescent plasma. (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tymor Hamamsy ◽  
Richard Bonneau
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
White House ◽  
The Public ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Clinical Trial Evidence ◽  
Twitter Activity ◽  
Trial Evidence

BACKGROUND Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the public has been eager for news about promising treatments, and social media has played a large role in information dissemination. OBJECTIVE In this paper, our objectives are to characterize the public discussion of treatments on Twitter, and demonstrate the utility of these discussions for public health surveillance. METHODS We pulled tweets related to three promising COVID-19 treatments (hydroxychloroquine, remdevisir and convalescent plasma), between the dates of February 28th and May 22nd using the Twitter public API. We characterize treatment tweet trends over this time period. RESULTS Most major tweet/retweet/sentiment trends correlated to public announcement made by the white house and/or to new clinical trial evidence about treatments. Most of the websites people shared in treatment-related tweets were non-scientific media sources that leaned conservative. Hydroxychloroquine was the most discussed treatment on Twitter, and over 10% of hydroxychloroquine tweets mentioned an adverse drug reaction. CONCLUSIONS There is a gap between the public’s attention/discussion around COVID-19 treatments and their evidence. Twitter data can and should be used public health surveillance during this pandemic, as it is informative for monitoring adverse drug reactions, especially as many people avoid going to hospitals/doctors.

Twitter and Its Role in Health Information Dissemination

2015 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Dan Dumbrell ◽  
Robert Steele
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Health Condition ◽  
Sample Period ◽  
Australian Health ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Twitter Activity

The utilization of micro-blog-based systems for the dissemination of health-related information offers a number of potential benefits. In this chapter, the authors describe a study of such micro-blog-based dissemination of health information by Australian health-related organisations through the manual categorization of over 4,700 tweets posted during a defined sample period. These tweets were analysed in relation to the sector of the tweeting organisation, health condition area, type of information in the micro-blog post, and level of retweeting. The particular category of public health-related tweets is also analysed in greater detail. This chapter differs from previous health and Twitter-related studies in that it: 1) seeks to characterize the overall and relative Twitter activity of health-related organisations for the sector across a whole nation, rather than collecting a sample matching a specific keyword or health condition; and 2) carries out a more semantically deep analysis of the content of those tweets, hence the manual analysis-based methodology adopted.

Mobile Applications Leveraged in the COVID-19 Pandemic in East and South-East Asia: A Review and Content Analysis (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bohee Lee ◽  
Siti Aishah Ibrahim ◽  
Tiying Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Mobile Applications ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Credible Information

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic led to increased attention to digital tools to support governmental public health policies in East and South-East Asia. Mobile applications (or apps) related to COVID-19 continue to emerge and evolve with a wide variety of characteristics and functions. However, there is a paucity of studies evaluating such apps, with most of the available studies conducted in the early days of the pandemic. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to examine free apps developed or supported by governments in East and South-East Asian region and highlight their key characteristics and functions. Also, we aimed to interpret how other COVID-19 policies were associated with the introduction of these apps. METHODS We systematically searched for mobile apps in Apple App Store and Google Play Store and analysed the contents of eligible apps. The mobile apps released or updated between 1 March 2020 and 7 May 2021 in Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines were included. The CoronaNet Research Project database was also examined to examine the timeline of public health policy commencement dates to the release dates of the included apps. RESULTS Of the 1,943 mobile apps initially identified, 46 were eligible, with almost 70% of the mobile apps being intended for the general public. The most common function was health monitoring, followed by raising public health awareness through education and information dissemination. Significantly, most apps for quarantine monitoring were mandatory for the target users or a population subset. Most mobile apps emerged close to the public health policy commencement dates in the early stages of the pandemic. Mobile apps with functions related to COVID-19 vaccines began to appear parallel to vaccination rollout. CONCLUSIONS In East and South-East Asia, most governments employed mobile health apps as adjuncts to public health measures in this pandemic for tracking COVID-19 cases and delivering credible information.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document