scholarly journals Opioid Surveillance using Social Media: How URLs are shared among Reddit members

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Park ◽  
Mike Conway
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Opioid Overdose ◽  
Unique Member ◽  
Surveillance Practice ◽  
Share Information

Objective: We aim to understand (1) the frequency of URL sharing and (2) types of shared URLs among opioid related discussions that take place in the social media platform called Reddit.Introduction: Nearly 100 people per day die from opioid overdose in the United States. Further, prescription opioid abuse is assumed to be responsible for a 15-year increase in opioid overdose deaths1. However, with increasing use of social media comes increasing opportunity to seek and share information. For instance, 80% of Internet users obtain health information online2, including popular social interaction sites like Reddit (http://www.reddit.com), which had more than 82.5 billion page views in 20153. In Reddit, members often share information, and include URLs to supplement the information. Understanding the frequency of URL sharing and types of shared URLs can improve our knowledge of information seeking/sharing behaviors as well as domains of shared information on social media. Such knowledge has the potential to provide opportunities to improve public health surveillance practice. We use Reddit to track opioid related discussions and then investigate types of shared URLs among Reddit members in those discussions.Methods: First, we use a dataset4—made available on Reddit—that has been used in several informatics studies5,6. The dataset is comprised of 13,213,173 unique member IDs, 114,320,798 posts, and 1,659,361,605 associated comments that are made on 239,772 (including active and inactive) subreddits (i.e., sub-communities) from October 2007 to May 2015. Second, we identified 9 terms that are associated with opioids. The terms are 'opioid', 'opium', 'morphine', 'opiate', 'hydrocodone', 'oxycodone', 'fentanyl', 'heroin', and 'methadone'. Third, we preprocessed the entire dataset (i.e., converting text to lower cases and removing punctuation) and extracted discussions with opioid terms and their metadata (e.g., user ID, post ID) via a lexicon-based approach. Fourth, we extracted URLs using Python from these discussions, categorized the URLs by domain, and then visualized the results in a bubble chart7.Results: We extracted 1,121,187 posts/comments that were made by 328,179 unique member IDs from 8,892 subreddits. Of the 1,121,187 posts/comments, 82,639 posts/comments contained URLs (7.37%), and these posts consisted of 272,551 individual URLs and 138,206 unique URLs. The types of shared URLs in these opioid related discussions are summarized in Figure 1. The color and size represent the type and size respectively of shared URLs. The ‘.com’ is in blue; ‘.org’ is in orange; and ‘.gov’ is in green.Conclusions: We present preliminary findings concerning the types of shared URLs in opioid-related discussions among Reddit members. Our initial results suggest that Reddit members openly discuss opioid related issues and URL sharing is a part of information sharing. Although members share many URLs from reliable information sources (e.g., ‘ncbi.nlm.nih.gov’, ‘wikipedia.org, ‘nytimes.com’, ‘sciencedirect.com’), further investigation is needed concerning many of the ‘.com’ URLs, which have the potential to contain high and/or low quality information (e.g., ‘youtube.com’, ‘reddit.com’, ‘google.com’, ‘amazon.com’) to fully understand information seeking/sharing behaviors on social media and to identify opportunities, such as misinformation dissemination for improving public health surveillance practice.

scholarly journals Monitoring the opioid epidemic via social media discussions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Lavertu ◽  
Tymor Hamamsy ◽  
Russ B Altman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Opioid Epidemic ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Drug Classes ◽  
Social Media Platforms

AbstractThe opioid epidemic persists in the United States; in 2019, annual drug overdose deaths increased by 4.6% to 70,980, including 50,042 opioid-related deaths. The widespread abuse of opioids across geographies and demographics and the rapidly changing dynamics of abuse require reliable and timely information to monitor and address the crisis. Social media platforms include petabytes of participant-generated data, some of which, offers a window into the relationship between individuals and their use of drugs. We assessed the utility of Reddit data for public health surveillance, with a focus on the opioid epidemic. We built a natural language processing pipeline to identify opioid-related comments and created a cohort of 1,689,039 geo-located Reddit users, each assigned to a city and state. We followed these users over a period of 10+ years and measured their opioid-related activity over time. We benchmarked the activity of this cohort against CDC overdose death rates for different drug classes and NFLIS drug report rates. Our Reddit-derived rates of opioid discussion strongly correlated with external benchmarks on the national, regional, and city level. During the period of our study, kratom emerged as an active discussion topic; we analyzed mentions of kratom to understand the dynamics of its use. We also examined changes in opioid discussions during the COVID-19 pandemic; in 2020, many opioid classes showed marked increases in discussion patterns. Our work suggests the complementary utility of social media as a part of public health surveillance activities.

Disaggregation of Latina/o Child and Adult Health Data: A Systematic Review of Public Health Surveillance Surveys in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-79
Author(s):  
Carmela Alcántara ◽  
Shakira F. Suglia ◽  
Irene Perez Ibarra ◽  
A. Louise Falzon ◽  
Elliot McCullough ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Data ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Adult Health

Structural Transphobia, Homophobia, and Biphobia in Public Health Practice: The Example of COVID-19 Surveillance

2021 ◽  
pp. e1-e7
Author(s):  
Randall L. Sell ◽  
Elise I. Krims
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Public Health Surveillance System

Public health surveillance can have profound impacts on the health of populations, with COVID-19 surveillance offering an illuminating example. Surveillance surrounding COVID-19 testing, confirmed cases, and deaths has provided essential information to public health professionals about how to minimize morbidity and mortality. In the United States, surveillance has also pointed out how populations, on the basis of geography, age, and race and ethnicity, are being impacted disproportionately, allowing targeted intervention and evaluation. However, COVID-19 surveillance has also highlighted how the public health surveillance system fails some communities, including sexual and gender minorities. This failure has come about because of the haphazard and disorganized way disease reporting data are collected, analyzed, and reported in the United States, and the structural homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia acting within these systems. We provide recommendations for addressing these concerns after examining experiences collecting race data in COVID-19 surveillance and attempts in Pennsylvania and California to incorporate sexual orientation and gender identity variables into their pandemic surveillance efforts. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print June 10, 2021: e1–e7. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.3062727 )

scholarly journals Collection of Data on Race, Ethnicity, Language, and Nativity by US Public Health Surveillance and Monitoring Systems: Gaps and Opportunities

2017 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfonso Rodriguez-Lainz ◽  
Mariana McDonald ◽  
Maureen Fonseca-Ford ◽  
Ana Penman-Aguilar ◽  
Stephen H. Waterman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Monitoring Systems ◽  
Primary Language ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
Race Ethnicity

Objective: Despite increasing diversity in the US population, substantial gaps in collecting data on race, ethnicity, primary language, and nativity indicators persist in public health surveillance and monitoring systems. In addition, few systems provide questionnaires in foreign languages for inclusion of non-English speakers. We assessed (1) the extent of data collected on race, ethnicity, primary language, and nativity indicators (ie, place of birth, immigration status, and years in the United States) and (2) the use of data-collection instruments in non-English languages among Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)–supported public health surveillance and monitoring systems in the United States. Methods: We identified CDC-supported surveillance and health monitoring systems in place from 2010 through 2013 by searching CDC websites and other federal websites. For each system, we assessed its website, documentation, and publications for evidence of the variables of interest and use of data-collection instruments in non-English languages. We requested missing information from CDC program officials, as needed. Results: Of 125 data systems, 100 (80%) collected data on race and ethnicity, 2 more collected data on ethnicity but not race, 26 (21%) collected data on racial/ethnic subcategories, 40 (32%) collected data on place of birth, 21 (17%) collected data on years in the United States, 14 (11%) collected data on immigration status, 13 (10%) collected data on primary language, and 29 (23%) used non-English data-collection instruments. Population-based surveys and disease registries more often collected data on detailed variables than did case-based, administrative, and multiple-source systems. Conclusions: More complete and accurate data on race, ethnicity, primary language, and nativity can improve the quality, representativeness, and usefulness of public health surveillance and monitoring systems to plan and evaluate targeted public health interventions to eliminate health disparities.

scholarly journals User Privacy Concerns and Expectations of Post-Pandemic Health Surveillance: A Scenario-Based Interview Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Seberger ◽  
Sameer Patil
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
General Public ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Personal Privacy ◽  
User Privacy ◽  
Privacy Concerns ◽  
Greater Good

BACKGROUND Smartphone-based apps designed and deployed to mitigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic are poised to become an infrastructure for post-pandemic public health surveillance. Yet people frequently identify deep-seated privacy concerns about such apps, invoking rationalizations such as contributing to ‘the greater good’ to justify their privacy-related discomfort. We adopt a future-oriented lens and consider participant perceptions of the potential routinization of such apps as a general public health surveillance infrastructure. This work focuses on the need to temper the surveillant achievement of public health with consideration for potential colonization of public health by the exploitative mechanisms of surveillance capitalism. OBJECTIVE This study develops an understanding of people’s perceptions of the potential routinization of apps as an infrastructure for public health surveillance after the COVID-19 pandemic has ended. METHODS We conducted scenario-based interviews (n = 19) with adults in the United States in order to understand how people perceive the short- and long-term privacy concerns associated with a fictional smart-thermometer app deployed to mitigate the ‘outbreak of a contagious disease.’ The scenario indicated that the app would continue functioning ‘after the disease outbreak as dissipated.’ We analyzed participant interviews using reflexive thematic analysis (TA). RESULTS Participants contextualized their perceptions of the app in a core trade-off between public health and personal privacy. They further evidenced the widespread expectation that data collected through health-surveillant apps would be shared with unknown third parties for financial gain. This expectation suggests a perceived alignment between health surveillant technologies and the broader economics of surveillance capitalism. Because of such expectations, participants routinely rationalized the use of the fictional app, which they viewed as always already privacy-invasive, by invoking ‘the greater good.’ We uncover that ‘the greater good’ is multi-faceted and self-contradictory, evidencing participants’ worry that health surveillance apps will contribute to an expansion of exploitative forms of surveillance. CONCLUSIONS While apps may be an effective means of pandemic-mitigation and preparedness, such apps are not exclusively beneficial in their outcomes. The potential routinization of apps as an infrastructure of general public health surveillance fosters end-user exploitation. Through its alignment with surveillance capitalism, such exploitation potentially erodes patient trust in the health care systems and providers that care for them. The inroads to such exploitation are present in participants’ manifestation of digital resignation, hyperbolic scaling, expectation of an infrastructure that works ‘too well,’ and generalized privacy fatalism.

scholarly journals Clinical Microbiology Laboratories' Adoption of Culture-Independent Diagnostic Tests Is a Threat to Foodborne-Disease Surveillance in the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shari Shea ◽  
Kristy A. Kubota ◽  
Hugh Maguire ◽  
Stephen Gladbach ◽  
Amy Woron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Diagnostic Tests ◽  
Clinical Microbiology ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Enteric Pathogens ◽  
Public Health Laboratory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Culture Independent

INTRODUCTION In November 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent a letter to state and territorial epidemiologists, state and territorial public health laboratory directors, and state and territorial health officials. In this letter, culture-independent diagnostic tests (CIDTs) for detection of enteric pathogens were characterized as “a serious and current threat to public health surveillance, particularly for Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and Salmonella .” The document says CDC and its public health partners are approaching this issue, in part, by “reviewing regulatory authority in public health agencies to require culture isolates or specimen submission if CIDTs are used.” Large-scale foodborne outbreaks are a continuing threat to public health, and tracking these outbreaks is an important tool in shortening them and developing strategies to prevent them. It is clear that the use of CIDTs for enteric pathogen detection, including both antigen detection and multiplex nucleic acid amplification techniques, is becoming more widespread. Furthermore, some clinical microbiology laboratories will resist the mandate to require submission of culture isolates, since it will likely not improve patient outcomes but may add significant costs. Specimen submission would be less expensive and time-consuming for clinical laboratories; however, this approach would be burdensome for public health laboratories, since those laboratories would need to perform culture isolation prior to typing. Shari Shea and Kristy Kubota from the Association of Public Health Laboratories, along with state public health laboratory officials from Colorado, Missouri, Tennessee, and Utah, will explain the public health laboratories' perspective on why having access to isolates of enteric pathogens is essential for public health surveillance, detection, and tracking of outbreaks and offer potential workable solutions which will allow them to do this. Marc Couturier of ARUP Laboratories and Melissa Miller of the University of North Carolina will explain the advantages of CIDTs for enteric pathogens and discuss practical solutions for clinical microbiology laboratories to address these public health needs.

scholarly journals Understanding and Addressing Latinx COVID-19 Disparities in Washington State

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 845-849
Author(s):  
Barbara Baquero ◽  
Carmen Gonzalez ◽  
Magaly Ramirez ◽  
Erica Chavez Santos ◽  
India J. Ornelas
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Health Inequities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Washington State ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Taking Action

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed, and intensified, health inequities faced by Latinx in the United States. Washington was one of the first U.S. states to report cases of COVID-19. Public health surveillance shows that 31% of Washington cases are Latinx, despite being only 13% of the state population. Unjust policies related to immigration, labor, housing, transportation, and education have contributed to both past and existing inequities. Approximately 20% of Latinx are uninsured, leading to delays in testing and medical care for COVID-19, and early reports indicated critical shortages in professional interpreters and multilingual telehealth options. Washington State is taking action to address some of these inequities. Applying a health equity framework, we describe key factors contributing to COVID-19–related health inequities among Latinx populations, and how Washington State has aimed to address these inequities. We draw on these experiences to make recommendations for other Latinx communities experiencing COVID-19 disparities.

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