We explore the rapidly growing field of using social media especially Twitter as a source of data for Health and Medicine related Research. The types of data available and their application, the limitations in Methodology and standard guidelines with future areas of research are highlighted. No one can escape living in the virtual world today. The virtual world is brimming with Information and knowledge whose scope is much beyond one had imagined even till five years ago. In their attempts to find comprehensive databases, health workers and researchers are tapping the potential of these major interactive sites. These sites transcend geography and hold the potential in providing significant data related to population health, preferences, trends, and behaviour patterns. Predominant among these are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter with Twitter being the most used for public health research To Learn More:https://bit.ly/2Ck3Lgr Contact Us: UK NO: +44-1143520021 India No: +91-8754446690 Email: info@phdassistance.com

1. Copyright © 2020 PhdAssistance. All rights reserved 1
How You Can Use Twitter as a Tool for Phd Health Research
Dr. Nancy Agens, Head,
Technical Operations, Phdassistance
info@phdassistance.com
In brief
We explore the rapidly growing field of using
social media especially Twitter as a source of
data for Health and Medicine related
Research. The types of data available and
their application, the limitations in
Methodology and standard guidelines with
future areas of research are highlighted.
Keywords: Twitter, PhD health research
Dissertation Topic Selection, Best Research
Thesis topic, computing Dissertation topic
selection, PhD statistics topic selection
support.
I. REALITY OF THE VIRTUAL WORLD-
AN OXYMORON
No one can escape living in the virtual world
today. The virtual world is brimming with
Information and knowledge whose scope is
much beyond one had imagined even till five
years ago. In their attempts to find
comprehensive databases, health workers and
researchers are tapping the potential of these
major interactive sites. These sites transcend
geography and hold the potential in providing
significant data related to population health,
preferences, trends, and behaviour patterns.
Predominant among these are Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter with Twitter being the
most used for public health research
(Alshaikh, Ramzan, Rawaf, & Majeed, 2014).
II. “TWEET” “TWEET”
Twitter is a social media interacting site based
out of San Francisco with over 25 offices
worldwide. Users register and can post their
messages or „tweets‟ of up to 280 characters
while interacting with each other. It is termed
as „SMS of the internet‟ due to the large
number of registered users running into
hundreds of millions. It is the most widely
used social medium for Research related to
Healthcare, because of the ease of access to
huge amount of data available to open access
(Twitter, 2020). Also,
● Tweets are consistent in length, machine
learning methods work better,
● Data is real-time, making time series
analysis possible,
● Interaction between people allows better
network analysis,
● Almost 100% data available through API,
● Uses hastag# making search by key words
easy,
● Sentiment analysis is easy with the „like‟,
„dislike‟ feature,
● Larger demographic group involved,
● Any user can follow another user.
It is for the above reasons that though
Twitter is not as widely used as Facebook or
WhatsApp, still it is the one that has attracted
Academics and Researchers the most,
making it a powerful tool for research data
(Neiger, Thackeray, Burton, Giraud-Carrier, &
Fagen, 2013).
III. WHAT TO USE AND HOW?
Sinnenberg et al performed a systematic
review of the studies conducted using Twitter
as a tool for health research. They summarized
the ways in which data from Twitter was used
for purpose of research (Sinnenberg et al.,
2017): -
● Content analysis – here body of text is
analysed and information relevant to the
topic is used. E.g. Content related to a
health topic like obesity or cancer.
● Sentiment analysis – The positive or
negative agreement to the topic in question
is analysed and data is used. E.g. „High
traffic‟ topics fund best research thesis.

2. Copyright © 2020 PhdAssistance. All rights reserved 2
● Image analysis –Assessment of images in
the body of the text is analysed in the
context of the topic.
● Surveillance – Monitoring the level of
activity related to the topic in relation to
the background level of activity. E.g.
Dissertation topic selection can be done
based on the „hot‟ topics on social media.
● Prediction – Estimating prevalence of a
condition
● Engagement–Ability of a topic to engage
users to tweet, retweet and remain engaged
in the discussion with other users.
● Network analysis – Assessing interaction
between users on a topic.
● Recruitment (Fenner et al., 2012) – Using
the platform to recruit subjects for a
research study. E.g. recruitment of study
population having a rare condition.
● Intervention (Hawn, 2009) - Using the
platform to intervene in a research study.
E.g. weight loss, nutrition, smoking
cessation related interventions and their
outcome study. This could form a unique
method for PhD statistics topic selection
support (Balatsoukas, Kennedy, Buchan,
Powell, & Ainsworth, 2015).
● Ethical discussion - Studying the need for
approvals from ethical boards. E.g.
Whether online or written patient consent
is needed for research. Consent for using
Twitter data in addition to the terms and
conditions of service agreement at the time
of user registration.
● Funding – Database of organizations
funding research work.
● Computing Dissertation topic selection
performed on the Twitter-based research is
commonly related to public health,
infectious disease, behavioural medicine,
and psychiatry.
IV. THE ROAD AHEAD
● Standard processes for how the Twitter
data should be used is not defined. There
needs to be uniform reporting procedures
clearly defined and agreed upon. Time-to-
time these SOPs need to be revisited and
redone based on lessons learnt in the
interim period (Tsou, 2015).
● Criteria for validity, reliability and
scalability of Twitter-driven data need to
be studied and several organizations are
actively involved in funding such research.
● Also, privacy of data and ethical issues is a
broad field where clear-cut guidelines are
needed.
● Underutilisation of Twitter data is another
area of concern and guidelines regarding
the same are the need of the hour. Twitter
API vis-à-vis Twitter firehose accessing
1% and complete data, respectively.
● Twitter‟s data sharing policy and
affordances of the public API make the
database for research complicated and one
needs to be aware of these limitations to
understand the factors that can skew the
research study.
● Machine learning involving data
scientists for better understanding of the
demographic data of the users participating
in the research.
● Better use of the platform to study chronic
illnesses like diabetes and hypertension.
● Studying the effectiveness of using
Twitter-based data for medical research.
V. CONCLUSION
Twitter-based Medical Research is a
rapidly growing niche area with publications
almost doubling year on year in the last 2-3
years. The huge database with open access
along with opportunity for recruitment and
intervention are the major selling points for
Twitter compared to the other social media
sites. However, there are several limitations to
the methodology used by the different
research groups, the most significant being the
lack of standard reporting protocols and there
is an urgent need to address this with uniform
guidelines.
REFERENCES
[1] Alshaikh, F., Ramzan, F., Rawaf, S., & Majeed, A. (2014).
Social Network Sites as a Mode to Collect Health Data:
A Systematic Review. Journal of Medical Internet
Research, 16(7), e171.
https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.3050

3. Copyright © 2020 PhdAssistance. All rights reserved 2
[2] Balatsoukas, P., Kennedy, C. M., Buchan, I., Powell, J., &
Ainsworth, J. (2015). The Role of Social Network
Technologies in Online Health Promotion: A Narrative
Review of Theoretical and Empirical Factors
Influencing Intervention Effectiveness. Journal of
Medical Internet Research, 17(6), e141.
https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.3662
[3] Fenner, Y., Garland, S. M., Moore, E. E., Jayasinghe, Y.,
Fletcher, A., Tabrizi, S. N., … Wark, J. D. (2012).
Web-Based Recruiting for Health Research Using a
Social Networking Site: An Exploratory Study. Journal
of Medical Internet Research, 14(1), e20.
https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.1978
[4] Hawn, C. (2009). Take Two Aspirin And Tweet Me In
The Morning: How Twitter, Facebook, And Other
Social Media Are Reshaping Health Care. Health
Affairs, 28(2), 361–368.
https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.28.2.361
[5] Neiger, B. L., Thackeray, R., Burton, S. H., Giraud-
Carrier, C. G., & Fagen, M. C. (2013). Evaluating
social media‟s capacity to develop engaged audiences
in health promotion settings: use of Twitter metrics as a
case study. Health Promotion Practice, 14(2), 157–
162. Retrieved from
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1524839
912469378
[6] Sinnenberg, L., Buttenheim, A. M., Padrez, K., Mancheno,
C., Ungar, L., & Merchant, R. M. (2017). Twitter as a
Tool for Health Research: A Systematic Review.
American Journal of Public Health, 107(1), e1–e8.
https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303512
[7] Tsou, M.-H. (2015). Research challenges and
opportunities in mapping social media and Big Data.
Cartography and Geographic Information Science,
42(sup1), 70–74. Retrieved from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1523040
6.2015.1059251
[8] Twitter. (2020). Our talented and diverse employees work
together across 35+ offices worldwide. Retrieved July
4, 2020, from Twitter website:
https://about.twitter.com/en_us/company.html
itter‟s unique infrastructure and
the near-total availability of its data have ensured its
popularity among researchers remains
high
itter‟s unique infrastructure and
the near-total availability of its data have ensured its
popularity among researchers remains
high