Patients use Twitter in the US
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- Published: Saturday, 17 December 2011 20:16
- Written by News Editor
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| Twitter has become a new way for the public to communicate health concerns according to a study published in the Journal of Dental Research. Researchers demonstrated that Twitter users are already extensively sharing their experiences of toothache and seeking advice from other users. |
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The researchers 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 over seven non-consecutive days. The content was coded using pre-established, non-mutually 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 analysed 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.
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