Background: The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing racial/ethnic health disparities in the United States. Monitoring nationwide Twitter conversations about COVID-19 and race/ethnicity could shed light on the impact of the pandemic on racial/ethnic minorities and help address health disparities.
Objective: This paper aims to examine the association between COVID-19 tweet volume and COVID-19 cases and deaths, stratified by race/ethnicity, in the early onset of the pandemic.
Methods: This cross-sectional study used geotagged COVID-19 tweets from within the United States posted in April 2020 on Twitter to examine the association between tweet volume, COVID-19 surveillance data (total cases and deaths in April), and population size. The studied time frame was limited to April 2020 because April was the earliest month when COVID-19 surveillance data on racial/ethnic groups were collected. Racially/ethnically stratified tweets were extracted using racial/ethnic group-related keywords (Asian, Black, Latino, and White) from COVID-19 tweets. Racially/ethnically stratified tweets, COVID-19 cases, and COVID-19 deaths were mapped to reveal their spatial distribution patterns. An ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model was applied to each stratified dataset.
Results: The racially/ethnically stratified tweet volume was associated with surveillance data. Specifically, an increase of 1 Asian tweet was correlated with 288 Asian cases (P<.001) and 93.4 Asian deaths (P<.001); an increase of 1 Black tweet was linked to 47.6 Black deaths (P<.001); an increase of 1 Latino tweet was linked to 719 Latino deaths (P<.001); and an increase of 1 White tweet was linked to 60.2 White deaths (P<.001).
Conclusions: Using racially/ethnically stratified Twitter data as a surveillance indicator could inform epidemiologic trends to help estimate future surges of COVID-19 cases and potential future outbreaks of a pandemic among racial/ethnic groups.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/30371 | DOI Listing |
PLoS One
November 2024
Urban Health Collaborative and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
Background: Researchers have increasingly recognized the importance of structural and social determinants of health (SSDOH) as key drivers of a multitude of diseases and health outcomes. The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) is an ongoing, longitudinal cohort study of subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) that has followed geographically and racially/ethnically diverse participants starting in 2000. Since its inception, MESA has incorporated numerous SSDOH assessments and instruments to study in relation to CVD and aging outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Reconstr Microsurg
November 2024
Division of Plastic Surgery, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Great Neck, New York.
Background: Persistent disparities in breast reconstruction access have been widely documented, yet a significant research gap remains in understanding the impact of social determinants of health (SDOH) on postoperative outcomes and complications.
Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed on all patients who underwent abdominal-based free-flap breast reconstruction between August 2018 and December 2022 at a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse urban academic institute with a historically underserved patient population. Patients were stratified by the public (Medicare and Medicaid) versus private insurance as a proxy for SDOH.
NPJ Digit Med
August 2024
The Charles Bronfman Institute of Personalized Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
BMC Public Health
May 2024
Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC, 27709, USA.
Background: Minoritized racial/ethnic groups and women in the United States (US) are disproportionately burdened by food insecurity, which likely contributes to disparities in cardiovascular health (CVH). Disparities are projected to widen due to the worsening climate crisis that is straining the agricultural system including food supplies. Nonetheless, studies have not investigated the relationship between food security status and 'ideal' CVH in a large, nationally-representative and racially/ethnically diverse US sample.
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