ArticleJMIR infodemiology2023
Content and User Engagement of Health-Related Behavior Tweets Posted by Mass Media Outlets From Spain and the United States Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Observational Infodemiology Study.
Article in JMIR infodemiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Multilingual analysis of public discourse on opioid and non-opioid analgesics through social media: a cross-sectional infodemiological study.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Article
- Understanding public perceptions and discussions on diseases involving chronic pain through social media: cross-sectional infodemiology study.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDuring the early pandemic, there was substantial variation in public and government responses to COVID-19 in Europe and the United States. Mass media are a vital source of health information and news, frequently disseminating this information through social media, and may influence public and policy responses to the pandemic.
objectiveThis study aims to describe the extent to which major media outlets in the United States and Spain tweeted about health-related behaviors (HRBs) relevant to COVID-19, compare the tweeting patterns between media outlets of both countries, and determine user engagement in response to these tweets.
methodsWe investigated tweets posted by 30 major media outlets (n=17, 57% from Spain and n=13, 43% from the United States) between December 1, 2019 and May 31, 2020, which included keywords related to HRBs relevant to COVID-19. We classified tweets into 6 categories: mask-wearing, physical distancing, handwashing, quarantine or confinement, disinfecting objects, or multiple HRBs (any combination of the prior HRB categories). Additionally, we assessed the likes and retweets generated by each tweet. Poisson regression analyses compared the average predicted number of likes and retweets between the different HRB categories and between countries.
resultsOf 50,415 tweets initially collected, 8552 contained content associated with an HRB relevant to COVID-19. Of these, 600 were randomly chosen for training, and 2351 tweets were randomly selected for manual content analysis. Of the 2351 COVID-19-related tweets included in the content analysis, 62.91% (1479/2351) mentioned at least one HRB. The proportion of COVID-19 tweets mentioning at least one HRB differed significantly between countries (P=.006). Quarantine or confinement was mentioned in nearly half of all the HRB tweets in both countries. In contrast, the least frequently mentioned HRBs were disinfecting objects in Spain 6.9% (56/809) and handwashing in the United States 9.1% (61/670). For tweets from the United States mentioning at least one HRB, disinfecting objects had the highest median likes and retweets, whereas mask-wearing- and handwashing-related tweets achieved the highest median number of likes in Spain. Tweets from Spain that mentioned social distancing or disinfecting objects had a significantly lower predicted count of likes compared with tweets mentioning a different HRB (P=.02 and P=.01, respectively). Tweets from the United States that mentioned quarantine or confinement or disinfecting objects had a significantly lower predicted number of likes compared with tweets mentioning a different HRB (P<.001), whereas mask- and handwashing-related tweets had a significantly greater predicted number of likes (P=.04 and P=.02, respectively).
conclusionsThe type of HRB content and engagement with media outlet tweets varied between Spain and the United States early in the pandemic. However, content related to quarantine or confinement and engagement with handwashing was relatively high in both countries.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.