The use of Twitter by state leaders and its impact on the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Haman M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7695954 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BACKGROUND:It is crucial that world leaders mount effective public health measures in response to COVID-19. Twitter may represent a powerful tool to help achieve this. Here, we explore the role of Twitter as used by Group of Seven (G7) world leaders in response to COVID-19. METHODS:This was a qualitative study with content analysis. Inclusion criteria were as follows: viral tweets from G7 world leaders, attracting a minimum of 500 'likes'; keywords 'COVID-19' or 'coronavirus'; search dates 17 November 2019 to 17 March 2020. We performed content analysis to categorize tweets into appropriate themes and analyzed associated Twitter data. RESULTS:Eight out of nine (88.9%) G7 world leaders had verified and active Twitter accounts, with a total following of 85.7 million users. Out of a total 203 viral tweets, 166 (82.8%) were classified as 'Informative', of which 48 (28.6%) had weblinks to government-based sources, while 19 (9.4%) were 'Morale-boosting' and 14 (6.9%) were 'Political'. Numbers of followers and viral tweets were not strictly related. CONCLUSIONS:Twitter may represent a powerful tool for world leaders to rapidly communicate public health information with citizens. We would urge general caution when using Twitter for health information, with a preference for tweets containing official government-based information sources.
| S-EPMC7188178 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionThe objective of this study was to analyze the messages of influential emergency medicine (EM) Twitter users in the United States (US) during the early stages of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic by characterizing the themes, emotional tones, temporal viewpoints, and depth of engagement with the tweets.MethodsWe performed a retrospective mixed-methods analysis of publicly available Twitter data derived from the publicly available "Coronavirus Tweet IDs" dataset, March 3, 2020-May 1, 2020. Original tweets and modified retweets in the dataset by 50 influential EM Twitter users in the US were analyzed using linguistic software to report the emotional tone and temporal viewpoint. We qualitatively analyzed a 25% random subsample and report themes.ResultsThere were 1315 tweets available in the dataset from 36/50 influential EM Twitter users in the US. The majority of tweets were either positive (455/1315, 34.6%) or neutral (407/1315, 31%) in tone and focused on the present (1009/1315, 76.7%). Qualitative analysis identified six distinct themes, with users most often sharing news or clinical information.ConclusionsDuring the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, influential EM Twitter users in the US delivered mainly positive or neutral messages, most often pertaining to news stories or information directly relating to patient care. The majority of these messages led to engagement by other users. This study underscores how EM influencers can leverage social media in public health outbreaks to bring attention to topics of importance.
| S-EPMC8203008 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundSocial distancing measures have been effective in mitigating the spread of COVID-19; however, they have imposed a significant burden on population mental health and well-being. This study aimed to identify factors associated with loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to describe the relationship between loneliness and the risk of worsening health outcomes and behaviours.MethodsData for 8,960 adults were drawn from a national cross-sectional survey undertaken in Wales between January and June 2021. Participants self-reported changes to health and behaviour since the start of the pandemic. Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with loneliness, and the impact of loneliness on self-reported changes in physical health, physical fitness, mental health, weight, alcohol consumption and social relations in comparison with pre-pandemic experiences.ResultsGroups most at risk of loneliness were those aged < 35 years, women (odds ratio [95% confidence interval]: 1.86 [1.70-2.05]), those with chronic health conditions (1.43 [1.29-1.58]) and the unemployed (2.18 [1.76-2.70]). Loneliness was a strong predictor of worsening health outcomes and behaviours, with those reporting often feeling lonely being at increased odds of worsening physical health (3.29 [2.80-3.86]), physical fitness (2.22 [1.90-2.60]), mental health (8.33 [6.95-9.99]), weight (1.39 [1.19-1.62]), alcohol consumption (1.37 [1.12,-1.66]) and social relations (2.45 [2.07-2.89]) during the pandemic.ConclusionThis study established an association between loneliness and self-reported worsening health during the pandemic, and identified factors increasing the risk of loneliness. The effect that social control measures have on loneliness should influence the design of future public health policy.
| S-EPMC9433133 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The current COVID-19 pandemic raises concerns worldwide, leading to serious health, economic, and social challenges. The rapid spread of the virus at a global scale highlights the need for a more harmonized, less privacy-concerning, easily accessible approach to monitoring the human mobility that has proven to be associated with viral transmission. In this study, we analyzed over 580 million tweets worldwide to see how global collaborative efforts in reducing human mobility are reflected from the user-generated information at the global, country, and U.S. state scale. Considering the multifaceted nature of mobility, we propose two types of distance: the single-day distance and the cross-day distance. To quantify the responsiveness in certain geographic regions, we further propose a mobility-based responsive index (MRI) that captures the overall degree of mobility changes within a time window. The results suggest that mobility patterns obtained from Twitter data are amenable to quantitatively reflect the mobility dynamics. Globally, the proposed two distances had greatly deviated from their baselines after March 11, 2020, when WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. The considerably less periodicity after the declaration suggests that the protection measures have obviously affected people's travel routines. The country scale comparisons reveal the discrepancies in responsiveness, evidenced by the contrasting mobility patterns in different epidemic phases. We find that the triggers of mobility changes correspond well with the national announcements of mitigation measures, proving that Twitter-based mobility implies the effectiveness of those measures. In the U.S., the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on mobility is distinct. However, the impacts vary substantially among states.
| S-EPMC7654838 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The study aims to understand Twitter users' discourse and psychological reactions to COVID-19. We use machine learning techniques to analyze about 1.9 million Tweets (written in English) related to coronavirus collected from January 23 to March 7, 2020. A total of salient 11 topics are identified and then categorized into ten themes, including "updates about confirmed cases," "COVID-19 related death," "cases outside China (worldwide)," "COVID-19 outbreak in South Korea," "early signs of the outbreak in New York," "Diamond Princess cruise," "economic impact," "Preventive measures," "authorities," and "supply chain." Results do not reveal treatments and symptoms related messages as prevalent topics on Twitter. Sentiment analysis shows that fear for the unknown nature of the coronavirus is dominant in all topics. Implications and limitations of the study are also discussed.
| S-EPMC7518625 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundPalliative and end-of-life care (PEoLC) played a critical role in relieving distress and providing grief support in response to the heavy toll caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about public opinions concerning PEoLC during the pandemic. Given that social media have the potential to collect real-time public opinions, an analysis of this evidence is vital to guide future policy-making.ObjectiveThis study aimed to use social media data to investigate real-time public opinions regarding PEoLC during the COVID-19 crisis and explore the impact of vaccination programs on public opinions about PEoLC.MethodsThis Twitter-based study explored tweets across 3 English-speaking countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. From October 2020 to March 2021, a total of 7951 PEoLC-related tweets with geographic tags were retrieved and identified from a large-scale COVID-19 Twitter data set through the Twitter application programming interface. Topic modeling realized through a pointwise mutual information-based co-occurrence network and Louvain modularity was used to examine latent topics across the 3 countries and across 2 time periods (pre- and postvaccination program periods).ResultsCommonalities and regional differences among PEoLC topics in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada were identified specifically: cancer care and care facilities were of common interest to the public across the 3 countries during the pandemic; the public expressed positive attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine and highlighted the protection it affords to PEoLC professionals; and although Twitter users shared their personal experiences about PEoLC in the web-based community during the pandemic, this was more prominent in the United States and Canada. The implementation of the vaccination programs raised the profile of the vaccine discussion; however, this did not influence public opinions about PEoLC.ConclusionsPublic opinions on Twitter reflected a need for enhanced PEoLC services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The insignificant impact of the vaccination program on public discussion on social media indicated that public concerns regarding PEoLC continued to persist even after the vaccination efforts. Insights gleaned from public opinions regarding PEoLC could provide some clues for policy makers on how to ensure high-quality PEoLC during public health emergencies. In this post-COVID-19 era, PEoLC professionals may wish to continue to examine social media and learn from web-based public discussion how to ease the long-lasting trauma caused by this crisis and prepare for public health emergencies in the future. Besides, our results showed social media's potential in acting as an effective tool to reflect public opinions in the context of PEoLC.
| S-EPMC10408639 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-BSST1055 | biostudies-other
Project description:BackgroundDuring a public health crisis such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, governments and health authorities need quick and accurate methods of communicating with the public. While social media can serve as a useful tool for effective communication during disease outbreaks, few studies have elucidated how these platforms are used by the Ministry of Health (MOH) during disease outbreaks in Saudi Arabia.ObjectiveGuided by the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication model, this study aimed to explore the MOH's use of Twitter and the public's engagement during different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia.MethodsTweets and corresponding likes and retweets were extracted from the official Twitter account of the MOH in Saudi Arabia for the period of January 1 through August 31, 2020. Tweets related to COVID-19 were identified; subsequently, content analysis was performed, in which tweets were coded for the following message types: risk messages, warnings, preparations, uncertainty reduction, efficacy, reassurance, and digital health responses. Public engagement was measured by examining the numbers of likes and retweets. The association between outbreak stages and types of messages was assessed, as well as the effect of these messages on public engagement.ResultsThe MOH posted a total of 1393 original tweets during the study period. Of the total tweets, 1293 (92.82%) were related to COVID-19, and 1217 were ultimately included in the analysis. The MOH posted the majority of its tweets (65.89%) during the initial stage of the outbreak. Accordingly, the public showed the highest level of engagement (as indicated by numbers of likes and retweets) during the initial stage. The types of messages sent by the MOH significantly differed across outbreak stages, with messages related to uncertainty reduction, reassurance, and efficacy being prevalent among all stages. Tweet content, media type, and crisis stage influenced the level of public engagement. Engagement was negatively associated with the inclusion of hyperlinks and multimedia files, while higher level of public engagement was associated with the use of hashtags. Tweets related to warnings, uncertainty reduction, and reassurance received high levels of public engagement.ConclusionsThis study provides insights into the Saudi MOH's communication strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results have implications for researchers, governments, health organizations, and practitioners with regard to their communication practices during outbreaks. To increase public engagement, governments and health authorities should consider the public's need for information. This, in turn, could raise public awareness regarding disease outbreaks.
| S-EPMC8276783 | biostudies-literature
Project description:COVID-19 has had economic, social and environmental impacts worldwide. Governments have adopted containment measures to limit the spread of the virus. Urban green spaces (UGSs) were included among the non-essential activities and were consequently closed during the lockdown periods in some countries. This study analysed tweets posted by users to understand the citizens' perception and sentiment in relation to the closure of UGS in Italy. Results revealed that people felt a strong deprivation feeling in relation to the restrictions imposed on UGS access, which limited the number of spaces for supporting mental and physical wellbeing of citizens. Users from urban areas were more affected by the lockdowns and more willing to share thoughts on social media, demonstrating a strong emotionality. Furthermore, findings show that users seemed concerned about their children's health, expressing awareness about the benefits of being in contact with nature. UGS is able to provide services to citizens, and close-to-home parks are fundamental for the community, in particular during a health emergency. The implementation of urban design, which includes green areas to support health and environment challenges, should be addressed by policy-makers to create opportunities for a green and resilient recovery of cities, and prepare for future emergencies.
| S-EPMC9091318 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In this study, we measured the association between county characteristics and changes in healthy-food, fast-food, and alcohol tweets during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Our analytic dataset consisted of 1,282,316 geotagged tweets that referenced food consumption posted before (63.2%) and during (36.8%) the pandemic and included all US states. We found the share of healthy-food tweets increased by 20.5% during the pandemic compared with pre-pandemic, while fast-food and alcohol tweets decreased by 9.4% and 11.4%, respectively. We also observed that time spent at home and more grocery stores per capita were associated with increased odds of healthy-food tweets and decreased odds of fast-food tweets. More liquor stores per capita was associated with increased odds of alcohol tweets. Our results highlight the potential impact of the pandemic on nutrition and alcohol consumption and the association between the built environment and health behaviors.
| S-EPMC9197791 | biostudies-literature