Facebook and Twitter vaccine sentiment in response to measles outbreaks

Michael S. Deiner; Cherie Fathy; Jessica Kim; Katherine Niemeyer; David Ramirez; Sarah F. Ackley; Fengchen Liu; Thomas M. Lietman; Travis C. Porco

doi:10.1177/1460458217740723

Facebook and Twitter vaccine sentiment in response to measles outbreaks

Michael S. Deiner, Cherie Fathy, Jessica Kim, Katherine Niemeyer, David Ramirez, Sarah F. Ackley, Fengchen Liu, Thomas M. Lietman, Travis C. Porco^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Ophthalmology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

60 Scopus citations

Abstract

Social media posts regarding measles vaccination were classified as pro-vaccination, expressing vaccine hesitancy, uncertain, or irrelevant. Spearman correlations with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–reported measles cases and differenced smoothed cumulative case counts over this period were reported (using time series bootstrap confidence intervals). A total of 58,078 Facebook posts and 82,993 tweets were identified from 4 January 2009 to 27 August 2016. Pro-vaccination posts were correlated with the US weekly reported cases (Facebook: Spearman correlation 0.22 (95% confidence interval: 0.09 to 0.34), Twitter: 0.21 (95% confidence interval: 0.06 to 0.34)). Vaccine-hesitant posts, however, were uncorrelated with measles cases in the United States (Facebook: 0.01 (95% confidence interval: −0.13 to 0.14), Twitter: 0.0011 (95% confidence interval: −0.12 to 0.12)). These findings may result from more consistent social media engagement by individuals expressing vaccine hesitancy, contrasted with media- or event-driven episodic interest on the part of individuals favoring current policy.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1116-1132
Number of pages	17
Journal	Health informatics journal
Volume	25
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458217740723
State	Published - Sep 1 2019

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: T.C.P. and T.M.L. gratefully acknowledge support from the US NIH NIGMS MIDAS program, 1-U01-GM087728, and T.C.P., T.M.L., and M.S.D. from the US NIH NEI R01 Grant EY024608. SFA acknowledges support from the US NIH NIGMS (grant number F31GM120985). C.F. acknowledges support from the Ingram Alumni Fund, Vanderbilt University. The funders/sponsors played no role in hypothesis generation, review, approval, or decision to publish.

Keywords

measles
patient compliance
social media
treatment refusal
vaccination

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Health Informatics

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1177/1460458217740723

Cite this

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title = "Facebook and Twitter vaccine sentiment in response to measles outbreaks",

abstract = "Social media posts regarding measles vaccination were classified as pro-vaccination, expressing vaccine hesitancy, uncertain, or irrelevant. Spearman correlations with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–reported measles cases and differenced smoothed cumulative case counts over this period were reported (using time series bootstrap confidence intervals). A total of 58,078 Facebook posts and 82,993 tweets were identified from 4 January 2009 to 27 August 2016. Pro-vaccination posts were correlated with the US weekly reported cases (Facebook: Spearman correlation 0.22 (95% confidence interval: 0.09 to 0.34), Twitter: 0.21 (95% confidence interval: 0.06 to 0.34)). Vaccine-hesitant posts, however, were uncorrelated with measles cases in the United States (Facebook: 0.01 (95% confidence interval: −0.13 to 0.14), Twitter: 0.0011 (95% confidence interval: −0.12 to 0.12)). These findings may result from more consistent social media engagement by individuals expressing vaccine hesitancy, contrasted with media- or event-driven episodic interest on the part of individuals favoring current policy.",

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AU - Deiner, Michael S.

AU - Fathy, Cherie

AU - Kim, Jessica

AU - Niemeyer, Katherine

AU - Ramirez, David

AU - Ackley, Sarah F.

AU - Liu, Fengchen

AU - Lietman, Thomas M.

AU - Porco, Travis C.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2017.

PY - 2019/9/1

Y1 - 2019/9/1

N2 - Social media posts regarding measles vaccination were classified as pro-vaccination, expressing vaccine hesitancy, uncertain, or irrelevant. Spearman correlations with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–reported measles cases and differenced smoothed cumulative case counts over this period were reported (using time series bootstrap confidence intervals). A total of 58,078 Facebook posts and 82,993 tweets were identified from 4 January 2009 to 27 August 2016. Pro-vaccination posts were correlated with the US weekly reported cases (Facebook: Spearman correlation 0.22 (95% confidence interval: 0.09 to 0.34), Twitter: 0.21 (95% confidence interval: 0.06 to 0.34)). Vaccine-hesitant posts, however, were uncorrelated with measles cases in the United States (Facebook: 0.01 (95% confidence interval: −0.13 to 0.14), Twitter: 0.0011 (95% confidence interval: −0.12 to 0.12)). These findings may result from more consistent social media engagement by individuals expressing vaccine hesitancy, contrasted with media- or event-driven episodic interest on the part of individuals favoring current policy.

AB - Social media posts regarding measles vaccination were classified as pro-vaccination, expressing vaccine hesitancy, uncertain, or irrelevant. Spearman correlations with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–reported measles cases and differenced smoothed cumulative case counts over this period were reported (using time series bootstrap confidence intervals). A total of 58,078 Facebook posts and 82,993 tweets were identified from 4 January 2009 to 27 August 2016. Pro-vaccination posts were correlated with the US weekly reported cases (Facebook: Spearman correlation 0.22 (95% confidence interval: 0.09 to 0.34), Twitter: 0.21 (95% confidence interval: 0.06 to 0.34)). Vaccine-hesitant posts, however, were uncorrelated with measles cases in the United States (Facebook: 0.01 (95% confidence interval: −0.13 to 0.14), Twitter: 0.0011 (95% confidence interval: −0.12 to 0.12)). These findings may result from more consistent social media engagement by individuals expressing vaccine hesitancy, contrasted with media- or event-driven episodic interest on the part of individuals favoring current policy.

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Facebook and Twitter vaccine sentiment in response to measles outbreaks

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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