Twitter users are sharing their toothache experiences and seeking advice from other users, according to a study in the Journal of Dental Research (JDR, July 18, 2011).
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco investigated the content of Twitter posts meeting search criteria relating to dental pain.
A set of 1,000 tweets was randomly selected from 4,859 tweets during seven nonconsecutive days. The content was coded using pre-established, nonmutually exclusive categories, including the experience of dental pain, actions taken or contemplated in response to a toothache, impact on daily life, and advice sought from the Twitter community.
After excluding ambiguous tweets, spam, and repeat users, 772 tweets were analyzed and frequencies calculated. Of those tweets, 83% were primarily categorized as a general statement of dental pain, 22% as an action taken or contemplated, and 15% as describing an impact on daily activities. Among the actions taken or contemplated, 44% reported seeing a dentist, 43% took an analgesic or antibiotic medication, and 14% actively sought advice from the Twitter community.
The extensive reach of Twitter is being used to distribute health information to the public who access Twitter, according to Paul Eke, MPH, PhD, of the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in a related article (JDR, July 18, 2011). But there are major limitations and challenges to be overcome before Twitter and its data products can be used for routine public health surveillance, he cautioned.
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