Should I Get That Jab? Exploring Influence to Encourage Vaccination via Online Social Media

This paper explores the suitability of social media networks (SMNs) as a means of influencing the public’s decision-making process regarding vaccinations, specifically a vaccination to protect girls against HPV, a virus associated with cervical cancer. Parents of girls in the target cohort were invited to online discussion forums where they could discuss their opinions on the vaccination. We varied the posts on the forums in different experimental condition, such that they were exposed to promotion of the vaccination in one of four different ways, and coming from one of two different sources, i.e., peers or government health representatives. Following the health belief model (HBM), these messages served as cues to action. After their active participation on the forums, participants filled out a ques-tionnaire with items related to the HBM. Analyses revealed no effect of our experimental manipula-tions of the cue to action. However, using an exploratory novel network analysis approach, we find that the HBM does not adequately account for influence via SMNs. Specifically we show that vaccination decisions are not taken in social isolation, a fact thus far ignored by various forms of the HBM. Implications for studies assessing the use of online channels for health communication are discussed

Should I Get That Jab? : Exploring Influence To Encourage Vaccination Via Online Social Media.

This paper explores the suitability of social media networks (SMNs) as a means of influencing the public’s decision-making process regarding vaccinations, specifically a vaccination to protect girls against HPV, a virus associated with cervical cancer. Parents of girls in the target cohort were invited to online discussion forums where they could discuss their opinions on the vaccination. We varied the posts on the forums in different experimental condition, such that they were exposed to promotion of the vaccination in one of four different ways, and coming from one of two different sources, i.e., peers or government health representatives. Following the health belief model (HBM), these messages served as cues to action. After their active participation on the forums, participants filled out a ques-tionnaire with items related to the HBM. Analyses revealed no effect of our experimental manipula-tions of the cue to action. However, using an exploratory novel network analysis approach, we find that the HBM does not adequately account for influence via SMNs. Specifically we show that vaccina-tion decisions are not taken in social isolation, a fact thus far ignored by various forms of the HBM. Implications for studies assessing the use of online channels for health communication are discussed

Comparison of Voluntary versus Mandatory Vaccine Discussions in Online Health Communities: A Text Analytics Approach

Vaccines are vital health interventions. However, they are controversial and some people support them while others reject them. Social media discussion and big data are a rich source to understand people’s insights about different vaccines and the related topics that concern most of them. This study aims to explore the online discussions about mandatory and voluntary vaccines using text analysis techniques. Reddit social platform is popular in online health discussion and thus data from Reddit is analyzed. The results show that different aspects are discussed for different types of vaccines. The discussion of mandatory vaccines is more interactive and is focused on the risks associated with them. Voluntary vaccines’ discussion is focused on their effectiveness and whether to get them or not. The study have important implications for health agencies and researchers as well as for healthcare providers and caregivers

Information security governance in big data environments: A systematic mapping

Information security governance is an important aspects for all organizations. Given the crucial importance of IT systems and the increasing range of threats these systems are facing, there is an increasing interest on the topic. On the other hand, Big Data environments are also beginning to be more pervasive as IT is increasing its importance for organizations worldwide. In order to better know which aspects are the most important for the intersection of Big Data and information security governance, authors present in this paper a systematic mapping on this topic. Authors illustrate challenges and gaps concerning the topic and clarify these challenges by means of a classification of the environments they take place, the security risk spectrums they concern, and the security governance measures they take to mitigate them; by providing solutions as in a framework, model, software or tool, wherever possible. Results are expected to be useful for IT security professionals and information systems practitioners as a whole.publishedVersio

Vaccine hesitancy and behavior change theory-based social media interventions: a systematic review

It is widely acknowledged that vaccine hesitancy is a multifaceted problem that cannot be addressed by a single strategy. Behavior change theories and social media tools may together help to guide the design of interventions aimed at improving vaccination uptake. This systematic review aims to identify the breadth and effectiveness of such theories and tools. The systematic review search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, ACM, Cochrane Library, ProQuest, and Web of Science databases for studies between January 2011 and January 2021 that applied social media tools to increase vaccine confidence or improve vaccination uptake. The literature search yielded a total of 3,065 publications. Twenty articles met the eligibility criteria, 12 of which were theory-based interventions. The result shows that the Health Belief Model was the most frequently deployed theory, and the most common social media tool was educational posts, followed by dialogue-based groups, interactive websites, and personal reminders. Theory-based interventions were generally more measurable and comparable and had more evidence to trigger the positive behavior change. Fifteen studies reported the effectiveness in knowledge gain, intention increase, or behavior change. Educational messages were proved to be effective in increasing knowledge but less helpful in triggering behavior change. Dialogue-based social media intervention performed well in improving people’s intention to vaccinate. Interventions informed by behavior change theory and delivered via social media platforms offer an important opportunity for addressing vaccine hesitancy. This review highlights the need to use a multitheory framework and tailoring social media interventions to the specific circumstances and needs of the target audience in future interventions. The results and insights gained from this review will be of assistance to future studies

Themes and Participants’ Role in Online Health Discussion: Evidence From Reddit

Health-related topics are discussed widely on different social networking sites. These discussions and their related aspects can reveal significant insights and patterns that are worth studying and understanding. In this dissertation, we explore the patterns of mandatory and voluntary vaccine online discussions including the topics discussed, the words correlated with each of them, and the sentiment expressed. Moreover, we explore the role opinion leaders play in the health discussion and their impact on participation in a particular discussion. Opinion leaders are determined, and their impact on discussion participation is differentiated based on their different characteristics such as their connections and locations in the social network, their content, and their sentiment. We apply social network analysis, topic modeling, sentiment analysis, machine learning, econometric analysis, and other techniques to analyze the collected data from Reddit. The results of our analyses show that sentiment is an important factor in health discussion, and it varies between different types of discussions. In addition, we identified the main topics discussed for each vaccine. Furthermore, the results of our study found that global opinion leaders have more influence compared to local opinion leaders in elevating the health discussion. Our study has important theoretical and practical implications

Persuasión y auto-eficacia percibida a través de facebook: el caso del VPH

El virus del papiloma humano es la enfermedad más común de transmisión sexual en el mundo, como indica la Organización Mundial para la Salud (OMS, 2015), la mayoría de las mujeres y hombres sexualmente activos contraerán la infección en algún momento de su vida. Aunque en la mayoría de los casos el organismo superará la infección, existen ciertos genotipos relacionados con algunos tipos de cáncer, como el cáncer del cuello de útero (CCU), el cuarto cáncer más frecuente en la mujer a nivel mundial. La OMS indica que el 70% de los cánceres cervicales de útero contiene el vph (Tipo 16 y 18), en 2012, 500.000 mujeres habían sido infectadas y el CCU provocó 270.000 muertes en todo el mundo. Por estos motivos, se hace imprescindible el conocimiento de la enfermedad, sobre el contagio y la prevención. Aunque se han desarrollado intervenciones y campañas dirigidas a la prevención del vph mediante el uso del preservativo y la vacunación, el vph sigue siendo una infección desconocida para la mayoría de los jóvenes y un tema estigmatizado (Evers, Albury, Byron y Crawford, 2013; Stephens y Tomas, 2014; Navarro-Illana et al., 2014). Las investigaciones sobre la persuasión narrativa y el Edu-entretenimiento (EE), muestran la eficacia de las narraciones para la transmisión de conocimiento, adquisición de nuevos valores y el cambio de conductas a otras más saludables (Murphy, Frank, Moran y Patnoe, 2011; Moyer-Gusé y Nabi, 2010; Igartua, 2011; Oliver, Dillard, Bae y Tamul, 2012; Niederdeppe, Shapiro y Porticella, 2011). La narrativa y la implicación del espectador en la historia y con los personajes provoca ciertos mecanismos psicológicos como el transporte narrativo, la identificación, la identificación de similitud, el deseo, las relaciones parasociales y la atracción que median los efectos persuasivos sobre la actitud y la conducta, y que producen efectos intermedios sobre la auto-eficacia que también influirá al cambio de la actitud y de la conducta (Moyer-Gusé, 2008; Sood, 2002)..