強力な新しい「デジタル・コホート」法を用いた研究で電子タバコの流行を解明(Study Uses Powerful New ‘Digital Cohort’ Method to Understand Vaping Epidemic)

2024-06-20

2024-06-19 カリフォルニア大学サンディエゴ校(UCSD)

カリフォルニア大学サンディエゴ校の研究者たちは、ソーシャルメディアの膨大なデータを活用して、米国の健康問題、特に電子タバコの流行を理解する新しいアプローチを紹介しました。John W. Ayers博士率いるチームは、「デジタルコホート」という方法を開発し、電子タバコの使用行動を研究しました。この研究では、1,911万件以上のツイートから、電子タバコに関する投稿を少なくとも10回した25,112のアカウントを特定し、これらのデータを分析しました。結果として、27%が禁煙を試み、26%が成功しました。また、失敗した場合、13%が再度挑戦し、その成功率は36%でした。このデジタルコホートアプローチは、他の健康問題にも応用でき、公衆衛生の改善に役立つとされています。

<関連情報>

ソーシャルメディアモニタリングのためのデジタルコホートアプローチ: 電子タバコを吸う人のコホート研究
A Digital Cohort Approach for Social Media Monitoring: A Cohort Study of People Who Vape E-Cigarettes

John W. Ayers, PhD, MA ;Adam Poliak, PhD;Nikolas T. Beros;…;Mark Dredze, PhD;Michael Hogarth, MD;Davey M. Smith, MD, MS
American Journal of Preventive Medicine Published:July 2024
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2024.01.016

Introduction
The evidence hierarchy in public health emphasizes longitudinal studies, whereas social media monitoring relies on aggregate analyses. Authors propose integrating longitudinal analyses into social media monitoring by creating a digital cohort of individual account holders, as demonstrated by a case study analysis of people who vape.

Methods
All English language X posts mentioning vape or vaping were collected from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2020. The digital cohort was composed of people who self-reported vaping and posted at least 10 times about vaping during the study period to determine the (1) prevalence, (2) success rate, and (3) timing of cessation behaviors.

Results
There were 25,112 instances where an account shared at least 10 posts about vaping, with 619 (95% CI=616, 622) mean person-days and 43,810,531 cumulative person-days of observation. Among a random sample of accounts, 39% (95% CI=35, 43) belonged to persons who vaped. Among this digital cohort, 27% (95% CI=21, 33) reported making a quit attempt. For all first quit attempts, 26% (95% CI=19, 33) were successful on the basis of their subsequent vaping posts. Among those with a failed first cessation attempt, 13% (95% CI=6, 19) subsequently made an additional quit attempt, of whom 36% (95% CI=11, 61) were successful. On average, a quit attempt occurred 531 days (95% CI=474, 588) after their first vaping-related post. If their quit attempt failed, any second quit attempt occurred 361 days (95% CI=250, 474) after their first quit attempt.

Conclusions
By aligning with standard epidemiologic surveillance practices, this approach can greatly enhance the usefulness of social media monitoring in informing public health decision making, such as yielding insights into the timing of cessation behaviors among people who vape.