SynthesisJournal of medical Internet research2014
Social network sites as a mode to collect health data: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Journal of medical Internet research, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Opportunities and pitfalls of social media research in rare genetic diseases: a systematic review.Genetics in medicine : official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics · 2021Pooled it
- Twitter as a Tool for Health Research: A Systematic Review.American journal of public health · 2017Pooled it
- Perceptions, attitudes, and concerns of underrepresented groups regarding the use of big data in children and young people's healthcare research - A systematic literature review.PLOS digital health · 2026Article
- Community-Sourced Reporting of Mortalities in Angelman Syndrome (1979-2022).American journal of medical genetics. Part A · 2025Article
- Patient-Generated Health Data (PGHD): Understanding, Requirements, Challenges, and Existing Techniques for Data Security and Privacy.Journal of personalized medicine · 2024Review
- Patient Experiences and Insights on Chronic Ocular Pain: Social Media Listening Study.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- Article
- Do the current MS clinical course descriptors need to change and if so how? A survey of the MS community.Multiple sclerosis (Houndmills, Basingstoke, England) · 2023Article
- Methods for Analyzing the Contents of Social Media for Health Care: Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- Article
- Comparison of Swedish nurses' attitudes toward involving families in care over a decade.BMC nursing · 2022Article
- Article
- Sorting the Healthy Diet Signal from the Social Media Expert Noise: Preliminary Evidence from the Healthy Diet Discourse on Twitter.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Identifying Influential Factors in the Discussion Dynamics of Emerging Health Issues on Social Media: Computational Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2020Article
- Digital tools for the recruitment and retention of participants in randomised controlled trials: a systematic map.Trials · 2020Review
- Evaluating Patient Experiences in Dry Eye Disease Through Social Media Listening Research.Ophthalmology and therapy · 2019Article
- Studying Cannabis Use Behaviors With Facebook and Web Surveys: Methods and Insights.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2018Article
- Ethical Issues in Social Media Research for Public Health.American journal of public health · 2018Article
- Internet Exposure Associated With Canadian Parents' Perception of Risk on Childhood Immunization: Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2018Article
- Facebook Recruitment of Vaccine-Hesitant Canadian Parents: Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTo date, health research literature has focused on social network sites (SNS) either as tools to deliver health care, to study the effect of these networks on behavior, or to analyze Web health content. Less is known about the effectiveness of these sites as a method for collecting data for health research and the means to use such powerful tools in health research.
objectiveThe objective of this study was to systematically review the available literature and explore the use of SNS as a mode of collecting data for health research. The review aims to answer four questions: Does health research employ SNS as method for collecting data? Is data quality affected by the mode of data collection? What types of participants were reached by SNS? What are the strengths and limitations of SNS?
methodsThe literature was reviewed systematically in March 2013 by searching the databases MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO, using the Ovid and PubMed interface from 1996 to the third week of March 2013. The search results were examined by 2 reviewers, and exclusion, inclusion, and quality assessment were carried out based on a pre-set protocol.
resultsThe inclusion criteria were met by 10 studies and results were analyzed descriptively to answer the review questions. There were four main results. (1) SNS have been used as a data collection tool by health researchers; all but 1 of the included studies were cross-sectional and quantitative. (2) Data quality indicators that were reported include response rate, cost, timeliness, missing data/completion rate, and validity. However, comparison was carried out only for response rate and cost as it was unclear how other reported indicators were measured. (3) The most targeted population were females and younger people. (4) All studies stated that SNS is an effective recruitment method but that it may introduce a sampling bias.
conclusionsSNS has a role in health research, but we need to ascertain how to use it effectively without affecting the quality of research. The field of SNS is growing rapidly, and it is necessary to take advantage of the strengths of this tool and to avoid its limitations by effective research design. This review provides an important insight for scholars who plan to conduct research using SNS.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.