Modeling influence and community in social media data using the digital methods initiative-twitter capture and analysis toolkit (DMI-TCAT) and Gephi.

The methods summarized in this video tutorial series are based on the open source Digital Methods Initiative - Twitter Capture and Analysis Toolkit (DMI-TCAT) that allows media researchers to collect tweets off the STREAM API (application programming interface) on an ongoing basis. With DMI - TCAT and the open source data visualization software Gephi, social data in the millions of units is quickly and easily sorted by algorithms to find users or items of importance on Twitter, such as in the Fig. 1 below. While these figures and the data gathered though the DMI-TCAT do not provide full firehose access to all historical tweets, they do provide a generally representative sample of tweets that is relatively proportional to the total volume of tweets being posted at any given time (Gerlitz & Rieder, 2013; Groshek & Tandoc, 2016). For more details on the DMI-TCAT and its operation, we encourage readers to visit its github page (https://github.com/digitalmethodsinitiative/dmi-tcat) and note that this cloud-based analytics program is free and customizable. The specific techniques covered in the methodology reported here in text and expanded upon in the video tutorial series include how to: • Model influence users by sizing nodes with the betweenness centrality algorithm; • Identify community groups by adding color using the modularity algorithm; • Spatialize networks through applying the openord algorithm; • Make social network graphs dynamic and interactive online.

Understanding and Diagnosing Antimicrobial Resistance on Social Media: A Yearlong Overview of Data and Analytics.

To better understand user conversations revolving around antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on Twitter, we used an online data collection and analysis toolkit with full firehose access to collect corpuses of tweets with "antibiotic" and "antimicrobial resistance" keyword tracks. The date range included tweets from November 28, 2015, to November 25, 2016, for both datasets. This yearlong date range provides insight into how users have discussed antibiotics and AMR and identifies any spikes in activity during a particular time frame. Overall, we found that discussions about antibiotics and AMR predominantly occur in the United States and the United Kingdom, with roughly equal gender participation. These conversations are influenced by news sources, health professionals, and governmental health organizations. Users will often defer to retweet and recirculate content posted from these official sources and link to external articles instead of posting their own musings on the subjects. Our findings are important benchmarks in understanding the prevalence and reach of potential misinformation about antibiotics and AMR on Twitter.

Social Media Use and Preferences in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

INTRODUCTION: There has been growing interest in social media use in managing chronic illnesses. The aim of this study was to assess social media usage in a large sample of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional study within the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation's IBD Partners' internet-based cohort. We used bivariate analyses to compare patient characteristics by various factors associated with social media utilization. We used logistic regression models to determine factors independently associated with using social media to obtain IBD-related information. RESULTS: A total of 1960 IBD patients were included. Most respondents reported spending between 30 and 60 minutes on social media sites per day. Thirty-two percent of respondents agreed that social media could be useful for disease management. Most respondents agreed that social media should be used to connect patients with IBD-related organizations and to obtain IBD-related information online. Fifty percent of respondents could not rate the quality of IBD information posted online. Concerns surrounding social media use included privacy/confidentiality and lack of trust of information posted. The most frequently used social media website was Facebook. Thirty-two percent of respondents used social media at least once in the last week to obtain or post IBD-related content. Factors independently associated with social media use for IBD included female gender (odds ratio [OR] 1.43; 95% CI,1.10-1.87), age (OR 0.99; 95% CI, 0.98-1.00), remission (OR 0.63; 95% CI, 0.50-0.79), and a diagnosis of Crohn's disease (CD) rather than ulcerative colitis (UC) (OR 0.74; 95% CI, 0.58-0.93). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with IBD in this cohort expressed a substantial interest in using social media to aid in disease management. Use was higher in younger patients, females, and patients with active disease. Most patients were unsure of the quality of information posted online, which represents opportunities for clinicians to guide patients to appropriate resources.

Twitter use at the 2016 Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health: analyzing #DIScience16.

BACKGROUND: Poor dissemination of research findings may hamper the reach and impact of scientific discoveries. One key emerging platform for research dissemination is social media, including Twitter. While Twitter and other social media are increasingly being used to disseminate research content presented during scientific conferences, few studies have investigated the extent to which these tools are used throughout conferences and how they are being used. The aim for this study was to better understand the use of Twitter during the 2016 Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health (D&I conference). METHODS: We performed an analysis of Twitter use before, during, and after the 2016 D&I conference, which took place from December 14 to 15. All tweets (posted between December 1 and 31) that included the conference-specific hashtag (#DIScience16) were assessed. We identified 2639 tweets using the data analytics platform NUVI. We used NUVI software to generate statistics about reach, influence, mentions, and origin of the tweets. Individual tweet content was also assessed using DiscoverText and coded for disease category, implementation outcomes discussed, category of tweet, and conference track. RESULTS: A total of 2639 tweets were analyzed; 89.1% of the tweets were posted during the conference. A total of 389 unique users participated on Twitter, representing 31 states and 22 locations outside of the USA. Most (56.8%) tweets were re-tweets and were used for scientific promotion (50.6%). Key conference speakers and implementation outcomes (de-implementation, adaptation, and fidelity) were commonly discussed. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings reveal that Twitter was used as a platform during the D&I conference, both to facilitate conference discussion and to promote scientific ideas. This work contributes to the existing data analytics and implementation science literature in two major ways: (1) by advancing knowledge of how social media is used during annual academic conferences and (2) by providing a deeper understanding of themes and emerging areas of interest in the dissemination and implementation sciences. Knowing specific topics of interest can help planners and scientists better understand the landscape of current and future implementation research and encourage new research dissemination strategies.

Media Consumption and Creation in Attitudes Toward and Knowledge of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Web-Based Survey.

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic gastrointestinal condition affecting over 5 million people globally and 1.6 million in the United States but currently lacks a precisely determined cause or cure. The range of symptoms IBD patients experience are often debilitating, and the societal stigmas associated with some such symptoms can further degrade their quality of life. Better understanding the nature of this public reproach then is a critical component for improving awareness campaigns and, ultimately, the experiences of IBD patients. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore and assess the public's awareness and knowledge of IBD, as well as what relationship, if any, exists between the social stigma surrounding IBD, knowledge of the disease, and various media usage, including social media. METHODS: Utilizing a Web-based opt-in platform, we surveyed a nationally representative sample (n=1200) with demographics mirroring those of the US Census figures across baseline parameters. Using constructed indices based on factor analysis, we were able to build reliable measures of personal characteristics, media behaviors, and perceptions and knowledge of IBD. RESULTS: Among the American public, IBD is the most stigmatized of seven diseases, including genital herpes and human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Additionally, IBD knowledge is generally low with 11.08% (133/1200) of the sample indicating no familiarity with the disease and 85.50% (1026/1200) of participants inaccurately answering two-thirds of the IBD index questions with which their knowledge was assessed. Increased knowledge of IBD is associated with lower levels of stigma. However, social media use is currently related to lower levels of IBD knowledge (P<.05). Furthermore, findings indicate that participants who most frequently engaged in producing social media content are less knowledgeable about IBD (P<.10), highlighting the potential for a dangerous cycle should they be contributing to a Web-based IBD dialogue. CONCLUSIONS: Greater efforts must be taken to stymie IBD misinformation across all media, but especially in social media channels, to increase IBD knowledge and reduce stigma surrounding IBD. These findings pave the way for further research qualitatively examining the pervasiveness of specific IBD messages found in today's social media landscape and their impact on enacted stigmas so as to better equip providers and patient advocacy organizations with impactful communication solutions.

A Survey of Social Media Use and Preferences in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

BACKGROUND: With the recent increase in the use of social media, patients with chronic illnesses are using the Internet as a resource for disease management. As the peak incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) occurs in patients between the ages of 15 and 30, IBD is a suitable condition to study social media use. The aim of this study was to assess social media usage and preferences in patients with IBD. METHODS: We administered a survey to 118 patients with IBD at our outpatient practice at the Boston Medical Center (BMC), Center for Digestive Disorders, and the University of Southern Alabama (USA) between November 1, 2015, and March 9, 2016. RESULTS: The most frequently used IBD-specific social media website was the CCFA (86%). High-frequency social media users were more likely to agree that "social media is useful for managing my IBD," compared with low-frequency social media users (OR 3.23, 0.3-10.1, P = 0.199). Fifty-five percent of respondents were interested in obtaining patient-with-IBD education through social media, or organizations such as the CCFA, whereas 45% did not express interest. Sixty-two percent of patients would be interested in following a social media account established by their gastroenterologist. Privacy and/or confidentiality issues were the primary barriers to social media use. Last, most patients were unsure of the quality of IBD information posted online. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that patients who frequently use social media are highly interested in using social media in the management of their IBD. Most patients with IBD in our study were interested in receiving IBD information from their gastroenterologist and other patient-related organizations through social media. Most patients are unsure of the quality of IBD information posted on social media. Gastroenterologists should be aware that their patients may use social media to obtain disease education. Future studies should assess the quality of IBD information on social media and the effectiveness of communication through social media as a means to improve patient education and outcomes.

Social Media Use in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Patients with chronic illnesses such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) have been more keen to utilize the Internet and in particular, social media to obtain patient educational information in recent years. It is important for the gastroenterologist to be aware of these modalities and how they might affect information exchange and ultimately, disease management. This article addresses the current prevalence of social media use, advent of mobile health applications, social media usage in patients with chronic conditions, usage amongst providers, and most notably, the usage and preferences in IBD patients. Over the last decade there has been an increasing desire from patients to receive educational material about their disease through social media. We reviewed the medical literature on the quality of IBD-related information on social media. Given the disparity of information available on the Internet, we remark on the quality of this information and stress the need for further research to assess the validity of IBD information posted on social media.