Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35529325›Full record

ArticleTobacco induced diseases2022

Content and trend analysis of user-generated nicotine sickness tweets: A retrospective infoveillance study.

Vidya Purushothaman, Tiana J McMann, Zhuoran Li, Raphael E Cuomo, Tim K Mackey

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Tobacco induced diseases, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
0.2field-weighted citation impact, top 49% 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

1 citing paper in PubMed, 2 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. 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

5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Vidya PurushothamanGlobal Health Policy and Data Institute, San Diego, United States.
Tiana J McMannGlobal Health Policy and Data Institute, San Diego, United States.
Zhuoran LiGlobal Health Policy and Data Institute, San Diego, United States.
Raphael E CuomoGlobal Health Policy and Data Institute, San Diego, United States.
Tim K MackeyGlobal Health Policy and Data Institute, San Diego, United States.
University of San Diego · USUniversity of California San Diego · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionExposure to pro-tobacco and electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) social media content can lead to overconsumption, increasing the likelihood of nicotine poisoning. This study aims to examine trends and characteristics of nicotine sickness content on Twitter between 2018-2020.

methodsTweets were collected retrospectively from the Twitter Academic Research Application Programming Interface (API) stream filtered for keywords: 'nic sick', 'nicsick', 'vape sick', 'vapesick' between 2018-2020. Collected tweets were manually annotated to identify suspected user-generated reports of nicotine sickness and related themes using an inductive coding approach. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test was used to assess stationarity in the monthly variation of the volume of tweets between 2018-2020.

resultsA total of 5651 tweets contained nicotine sickness-related keywords and 18.29% (n=1034) tweets reported one or more suspected nicotine sickness symptoms of varied severity. These tweets were also grouped into five related categories including firsthand and secondhand reports of symptoms, intentional overconsumption of nicotine products, users expressing intention to quit after 'nic sick' symptoms, mention of nicotine product type/brand name that they consumed while 'nic sick', and users discussing symptoms associated with nicotine withdrawal following cessation attempts. The volume of tweets reporting suspected nicotine sickness appeared to increase throughout the study period, except between February and April 2020. Stationarity in the volume of 'nicsick' tweets between 2018-2020 was not statistically significant (ADF= -0.32, p=0.98) indicating a change in the volume of tweets.

conclusionsResults point to the need for alternative forms of adverse event surveillance and reporting, to appropriately capture the growing health burden of vaping. Infoveillance approaches on social media platforms can help to assess the volume and characteristics of user-generated content discussing suspected nicotine poisoning, which may not be reported to poison control centers. Increasing volume of user-reported nicotine sickness and intentional overconsumption of nicotine in twitter posts represent a concerning trend associated with ENDS-related adverse events and poisoning.

Indexed as

nicotine sickness‘nic sick’tobaccoTwittervaping

Identifiers

PMID35529325
PMCPMC8919180
OpenAlexW4220729252

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.