Nowcasting and Forecasting COVID-19 Cases and Deaths Using Twitter Sentiment

Real-time access to information during a pandemic is crucial for mobilizing a response. A sentiment analysis of Twitter posts from the first 90 days of the COVID-19 pandemic was conducted. In particular, 2 million English tweets were collected from users in the United States that contained the word ‘covid’ between January 1, 2020 and March 31, 2020. Sentiments were used to model the new case and death counts using data from this time. The results of linear regression and k-nearest neighbors indicate that public sentiments on social media accurately predict both same-day and near future counts of both COVID-19 cases and deaths. Public health officials can use this knowledge to assist in responding to adverse public health events. Additionally, implications for future research and theorizing of social media’s impact on health behaviors are discussed

An Examination of Neurodevelopmental Outcomes, Healthcare Utilization, and Stigmatizing Language in Populations With Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)

Substance use disorder (SUD) during pregnancy, which includes opioid use disorder (OUD), has developed into a significant medical and social concern, as it can cause a range of complications for pregnant women, fetuses, and infants. One common condition resulting from OUD is neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a withdrawal syndrome experienced by infants after being exposed to opioids in the womb. NAS can cause visual physiological or neurodevelopmental complications or outcomes in newborns. Unfortunately, large-scale studies focusing on long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes of infants with NAS are minimal. NAS consists of indications and symptoms that can also affect the autonomic nervous, gastrointestinal, and respiratory systems, often requiring extended hospitalization and extensive pharmacological treatment. Despite the increase in the number of children suffering from NAS and the healthcare utilization consumed by their treatment, little is known about these children\u27 outcomes and diagnoses behind the utilizations after their initial hospitalization. Additionally, pregnant women with SUD and their children are often stigmatized, mainly through the perpetuation of stigmatizing words and inaccurate beliefs. Unfortunately, extensive use of stigmatizing language exists on social media platforms, with Twitter containing a substantive portion of the posts. This dissertation consists of three manuscripts that provide a comprehensive understanding of neurodevelopmental outcome, healthcare utilization, and stigmatizing language around NAS. The first manuscript compares neurodevelopmental diagnosis and screening of children treated with a NAS innovation program and children treated with traditional NAS care in South Carolina from birth to 4.5 years of age. It applies Kaplan-Meier survival curves to demonstrate and compare the survival (outcome), and Cox Proportional Hazard (PH) survival analysis models to identify how often neurodevelopmental screenings and diagnosis occur for children with NAS treated with and without the innovation program. The second manuscript explores two healthcare utilization outcomes, hospital readmission and hospital length of stay (LOSD), among children with NAS and children born late preterm in South Carolina, with follow-up years from 0–3 years of age. The risk of hospital readmission was examined using logistic regression, and unadjusted and adjusted negative binomial regression analyses were used to model the relationship between hospital LOSD for children with NAS and those born late preterm. Finally, the third manuscript examines social media data around OUD and NAS to expand understanding of the general population\u27s views and the potential unintended impacts of this communication environment on mothers and infants. This study consists of an event analysis of Twitter data, generated by a social media listening platform Sprinklr, to describe the use of stigmatizing language around OUD and NAS. The event was divided into three timeframes and the tests of significance were performed across all three timeframes using chi-square tests. In conclusion, this dissertation synthesized and discussed the results from the three studies. It also provided a broad discussion on the potential policy implications for clinical practice and possible directions for future research. For instance, increase insurance coverage through Medicaid and the state children’s health insurance programs, and the need for reaching a consensus on a specially established “addiction-ary,” particularly for NAS-related language

Exploring the role of social media within Covid-19 prevention and mis/information on Facebook: a case study of the South African level 5 lockdown.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.The outbreak of COVID-19 has created a global health crisis with a deep impact on the way in which we communicate and confront public health emergencies. The inundated utilization of social media has unified the world in a global pandemic experience. Social media has become an integral part of our lives particularly during the COVID-19 public health emergency. While lockdown regulations, due to COVID-19 has limited human and physical interaction, social media has been at the forefront of accessible information yet at the same time a platform for increased misinformation and myths surrounding the impact and risks of the pandemic. This study seeks to explore the role of social media discourses around COVID-19 prevention and misinformation during the first three weeks of the level 5 lockdown in South Africa. This study purposively selected 3 posts from the National Department of Health (NDoH) Facebook page between the 27th of March 2020 to the 18th of April 2020 that relate to COVID-19 prevention messaging and the way the NDoH has addressed the circulation of misinformation and fake news. The study uses a qualitative content analysis to analyse how the NDoH has utilized their Facebook page in disseminating COVID-19 prevention messaging, the common topics of discussion related to COVID-19 prevention and misinformation and fake news awareness and how the NDoH engaged in COVID-19 related messaging and prevention communication. The study adopts the three new categories of the uses and gratification theory (UGT); content, process, and social gratification (Stafford, Stafford and Schkade, 2004) to understand how the public engaged in COVID-19 related messaging on the National Department of Health’s Facebook page. Key findings of the study found that the NDoH, as a leading health institution in South Africa has utilized their Facebook page to introduce and encourage discussions around COVID-19 prevention messaging and misinformation and fake news awareness. The themes demonstrated the ways in which the NDoH Facebook was used to encourage discussions around the factors that influence COVID-19 prevention messaging, effects of the lockdown and COVID-19 mis/information, through the comments between the Facebook users. By reviewing the comments and the themes derived from them, it is evident that the NDoH, in initiating these discussions, has succeeded in utilizing their Facebook page to encourage discussions around COVID-19 prevention messaging and misinformation and fake news awareness. The common topics of discussion aligned with the rationale of the study that included; the influence of COVID-19 preventative apparel and physical prevention methods on prevention messaging; the influence of traditional medicine, herbal remedies and religious interventions on prevention messaging and the influence of scientific interventions and western medicine on prevention messaging which formed the theme of the factors that influence COVID-19 prevention messaging, experiences and consequences of lockdown which formed the theme effects of lockdown; as well as, fake news, general and mis/information regarding COVID-19 and conspiracy theories which formed the theme COVID-19 mis/information. Using the likes and shares of the posts and comments indicated that NDoH Facebook did encourage audience engagement of the posts regarding prevention strategies and misinformation during the level 5 lockdown in South Africa