Study Shows Social Media Sites Influence Medication Behavior and Attitudes

April 5, 2010 2:11 PM

A study published in the American Journal of Infection Control reviewed 1,000 Twitter status updates mentioning antibiotics to explore whether they contained evidence of misunderstanding or misuse of antibiotics. The study concluded that such analysis can provide information about misuse of and misunderstandings about antibiotics and that further investigation is warranted. The researchers suggest that misunderstandings about antibiotics have the potential to spread widely through vehicles such as Twitter. For example, "flu + antibiotics," was the most popular word combination under "misunderstanding and/or misuse," one of several categories used in the study, as reported by Science Daily. This word combination appeared in 345 status updates and reached a total of 172,571 followers. The study also stressed that social media networks, such as Twitter, can be influential in disseminating accurate information to the public, and in promoting positive behavior change.