The way people express their opinions and emotions on microblogging site Twitter may signal the rise of influenza, depression or other health issues in a specific area, an analysis of millions of anonymous tweets has revealed.
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According to experts:
- Opinions and emotions are present in every tweet, regardless of whether
the user is talking about their health. - Furthermore,like a digital heartbeat, we’re finding how changes in this behaviour relateto health trends in a community.
- It takes health workers weeks to discover influenza trends the traditional
way: By monitoring how many sick people visit clinics. - However, by discovering trends in real time, social media could be the
game-changing solution public health workers have been looking for, the
researchers said. - In addition,to truly tap this source of public data, researchers sought to understand patterns of how people behave differently on social media when they are sick.
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Team analysed:
- The team analysed 171 million tweets from users associated with the US
military. - To determine if the opinions and emotions they express reflect visits to the doctor for influenza-like illnesses.
- In addition,they compared military and civilian users from 25 US.
- And six international locations to see if this pattern varies based on
location or military affiliation. - They found that how people behaves varies significantly by location and
group. - Furthermore, neutral opinions and sadness were expressed most during high influenza-like illness periods.
- During low illness periods, positive opinion, anger, and surprise were
expressed more.
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