Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31719025›Full record

Observational studyJournal of medical Internet research2019

Associations Between Characteristics of Web-Based Diabetes News and Readers' Sentiments: Observational Study in the Netherlands.

Hans Vehof, Eibert Heerdink, José Sanders, Enny Das

Open access · goldAbstract readObservational Study
In one paragraph

Observational study in Journal of medical Internet research, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
0.2field-weighted citation impact, top 39% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Hans Vehof *Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0001-6800-9157
Eibert Heerdink *Research Group Process Innovations in Pharmaceutical Care, HU University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-5946-7209
José Sanders *Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0003-2984-3143
Enny Das *Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-0367-6757
Radboud University Nijmegen · NLUniversity of Applied Sciences Utrecht · NL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAlthough experts agree that Web-based health information often contains exaggeration and misrepresentation of science, it is not yet known how this information affects the readers' sentiments.

objectiveThis study aimed to investigate whether specific aspects of Web-based diabetes research news are associated with positive or negative sentiments in readers.

methodsA retrospective observational study of the comments on diabetes research news posted on Facebook pages was conducted as a function of the innovations' developmental phase, the intended treatment effect, and the use of strong language to intensify the news messages (superlatives). Data for the investigation were drawn from the diabetes research news posted between January 2014 and January 2018 on the two largest Dutch Facebook pages on diabetes and the corresponding reader comments. By manually coding these Facebook user comments, three binary outcome variables were created, reflecting the presence of a positive sentiment, the presence of a negative sentiment, and the presence of a statement expressing hopefulness.

resultsFacebook users made a total of 3710 comments on 173 diabetes research news posts that were eligible for further analysis. Facebook user comments on posts about diabetes prevention (odds ratio [OR] 0.55, 95% CI 0.37-0.84), improved blood glucose regulation (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.56-0.84), and symptom relief (OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.21-0.44) were associated with less positive sentiments as compared with potential diabetes cures. Furthermore, comments on innovations supported by preclinical evidence in animals were associated with more positive sentiments (OR 1.46, 95% CI 1.07-1.99) and statements expressing hope (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.01-2.14), when compared with innovations that have evidence from large human trials. This study found no evidence for the associations between language intensification of the news posts and the readers' sentiments.

conclusionsOur finding that the attitudes toward diabetes research news on Facebook are most positive when clinical efficacy is not (or not yet) proven in large patient trials suggests that news authors and editors, as well as medical professionals, must exercise caution when acting as a conduit for diabetes research news.

Indexed as

Information Seeking BehaviorDiabetes MellitusHumansJournalism, MedicalNetherlandsRetrospective StudiesSocial Mediadiabetes mellitusdiffusion of innovationinformation seeking behaviorsmedical journalismnews

Identifiers

PMID31719025
PMCPMC6881782
OpenAlexW2969130279

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.