Sinha Michael S, Freifeld Clark C, Brownstein John S, Donneyong Macarius M, Rausch Paula, Lappin Brian M, Zhou Esther H, Dal Pan Gerald J, Pawar Ajinkya M, Hwang Thomas J, Avorn Jerry, Kesselheim Aaron S
Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
College of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States.
JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2018 Jan 5;4(1):e1. doi: 10.2196/publichealth.7823.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issues drug safety communications (DSCs) to health care professionals, patients, and the public when safety issues emerge related to FDA-approved drug products. These safety messages are disseminated through social media to ensure broad uptake.
The objective of this study was to assess the social media dissemination of 2 DSCs released in 2013 for the sleep aid zolpidem.
We used the MedWatcher Social program and the DataSift historic query tool to aggregate Twitter and Facebook posts from October 1, 2012 through August 31, 2013, a period beginning approximately 3 months before the first DSC and ending 3 months after the second. Posts were categorized as (1) junk, (2) mention, and (3) adverse event (AE) based on a score between -0.2 (completely unrelated) to 1 (perfectly related). We also looked at Google Trends data and Wikipedia edits for the same time period. Google Trends search volume is scaled on a range of 0 to 100 and includes "Related queries" during the relevant time periods. An interrupted time series (ITS) analysis assessed the impact of DSCs on the counts of posts with specific mention of zolpidem-containing products. Chow tests for known structural breaks were conducted on data from Twitter, Facebook, and Google Trends. Finally, Wikipedia edits were pulled from the website's editorial history, which lists all revisions to a given page and the editor's identity.
In total, 174,286 Twitter posts and 59,641 Facebook posts met entry criteria. Of those, 16.63% (28,989/174,286) of Twitter posts and 25.91% (15,453/59,641) of Facebook posts were labeled as junk and excluded. AEs and mentions represented 9.21% (16,051/174,286) and 74.16% (129,246/174,286) of Twitter posts and 5.11% (3,050/59,641) and 68.98% (41,138/59,641) of Facebook posts, respectively. Total daily counts of posts about zolpidem-containing products increased on Twitter and Facebook on the day of the first DSC; Google searches increased on the week of the first DSC. ITS analyses demonstrated variability but pointed to an increase in interest around the first DSC. Chow tests were significant (P<.0001) for both DSCs on Facebook and Twitter, but only the first DSC on Google Trends. Wikipedia edits occurred soon after each DSC release, citing news articles rather than the DSC itself and presenting content that needed subsequent revisions for accuracy.
Social media offers challenges and opportunities for dissemination of the DSC messages. The FDA could consider strategies for more actively disseminating DSC safety information through social media platforms, particularly when announcements require updating. The FDA may also benefit from directly contributing content to websites like Wikipedia that are frequently accessed for drug-related information.
当与美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）批准的药品相关的安全问题出现时，FDA会向医疗保健专业人员、患者及公众发布药品安全通讯（DSC）。这些安全信息通过社交媒体传播，以确保广泛传播。
本研究的目的是评估2013年发布的关于助眠药物唑吡坦的两份DSC在社交媒体上的传播情况。
我们使用MedWatcher Social程序和DataSift历史查询工具，汇总2012年10月1日至2013年8月31日期间来自推特和脸书的帖子，这一时间段始于第一份DSC发布前约3个月，结束于第二份DSC发布后3个月。根据-0.2（完全不相关）至1（完全相关）的评分，帖子被分类为（1）垃圾信息、（2）提及和（3）不良事件（AE）。我们还查看了同一时间段的谷歌趋势数据和维基百科编辑记录。谷歌趋势搜索量按0至100的范围进行缩放，并包括相关时间段内的“相关查询”。中断时间序列（ITS）分析评估了DSC对特别提及含唑吡坦产品的帖子数量的影响。对来自推特、脸书和谷歌趋势的数据进行了已知结构断点的邹氏检验。最后，从维基百科网站的编辑历史中提取编辑记录，该记录列出了给定页面的所有修订以及编辑者的身份。
共有174,286条推特帖子和59,641条脸书帖子符合入选标准。其中，16.63%（28,989/174,286）的推特帖子和25.91%（15,453/59,641）的脸书帖子被标记为垃圾信息并被排除。不良事件和提及分别占推特帖子的9.21%（16,051/174,286）和74.16%（129,246/174,286），以及脸书帖子的5.11%（3,050/59,641）和68.98%（41,138/59,641）。关于含唑吡坦产品的帖子每日总数在第一份DSC发布当天在推特和脸书上有所增加；谷歌搜索在第一份DSC发布当周增加。ITS分析显示存在变异性，但表明在第一份DSC发布前后关注度有所增加。脸书和推特上两份DSC的邹氏检验均具有显著性（P<0.0001），但谷歌趋势上只有第一份DSC具有显著性。每次DSC发布后不久就出现了维基百科编辑记录，引用的是新闻文章而非DSC本身，且呈现的内容需要随后进行准确性修订。
社交媒体为DSC信息的传播带来了挑战和机遇。FDA可以考虑采取策略，通过社交媒体平台更积极地传播DSC安全信息，尤其是在公告需要更新时。FDA或许还能从直接为维基百科等经常被用于获取药品相关信息的网站提供内容中受益。
