Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40455757›Full record

ArticlePloS one2025

Towards using Tweet sentiment for infectious disease detection.

James Stassinos, Taylor Anderson, Andreas Züfle

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
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

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

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

3 authors.

James StassinosDepartment of Geography and Geoinformation Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, United States of America.
Taylor AndersonDepartment of Geography and Geoinformation Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, United States of America.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1145-0608
Andreas ZüfleDepartment of Computer Science, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Social media data has shown potential for identifying infectious disease outbreaks faster than official records of disease incidence. We examine spatial, temporal, and spatiotemporal relationships between COVID-19-related microblog sentiment and COVID-19 cases over space and time to investigate whether microblog-derived sentiment can be used for local infectious disease outbreak early warning. Therefore, we measure the sentiment of 56,755,894 COVID-19 related microblogs (tweets) from the microblogging platform X. We group these tweets by county and by calendar week to investigate spatial and temporal correlation between sentiment and observed cases (in the corresponding county and week). Our temporal analysis shows a significant negative correlation between sentiment and cases between June and September 2020. During this time, tweet sentiment could have served as an early warning for new COVID-19 outbreaks. Our spatial analysis shows that the East of the United States exhibits a significant negative correlation between Sentiment and Cases while the West exhibits a significant positive correlation. In these regions, Tweet Sentiment could have been used as an early warning signal for new outbreaks. Our spatiotemporal analysis discovers even stronger correlations in certain regions during certain time periods. If we could understand when, where, and why this correlation is strong, then we may be able to leverage social media as a successful early warning system.

Indexed as

Communicable DiseasesCOVID-19Social MediaDisease OutbreaksHumansSARS-CoV-2Spatio-Temporal AnalysisUnited States

Identifiers

PMID40455757
PMCPMC12129144

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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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.