Predictive and Preventive Medicine Research Unit, Multifactorial and Complex Disease Research Area, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
Department of Public Health and Pediatric Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Eur J Public Health. 2020 Jun 1;30(3):510-515. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckaa022.
Social media monitoring during TV broadcasts dedicated to vaccines can provide information on vaccine confidence. We analyzed the sentiment of tweets published in reaction to two TV broadcasts in Italy dedicated to vaccines, one based on scientific evidence [Presadiretta (PD)] and one including anti-vaccine personalities [Virus (VS)].
Tweets about vaccines published in an 8-day period centred on each of the two TV broadcasts were classified by sentiment. Differences in tweets' and users' characteristics between the two broadcasts were tested through Poisson, quasi-Poisson or logistic univariate regression. We investigated the association between users' characteristics and sentiment through univariate quasi-binomial logistic regression.
We downloaded 12 180 tweets pertinent to vaccines, published by 5447 users; 276 users tweeted during both broadcasts. Sentiment was positive in 50.4% of tweets, negative in 37.7% and neutral in 10.1% (remaining tweets were unclear or questions). The positive/negative ratio was higher for VS compared to PD (6.96 vs. 4.24, P<0.001). Positive sentiment was associated to the user's number of followers (OR 1.68, P<0.001), friends (OR 1.83, P<0.001) and published tweets (OR 1.46, P<0.001) and to being a recurrent user (OR 3.26, P<0.001).
Twitter users were highly reactive to TV broadcasts dedicated to vaccines. Sentiment was mainly positive, especially among very active users. Displaying anti-vaccine positions on TV elicited a positive sentiment on Twitter. Listening to social media during TV shows dedicated to vaccines can provide a diverse set of data that can be exploited by public health institutions to inform tailored vaccine communication initiatives.
在专门针对疫苗的电视节目中进行社交媒体监测，可以提供有关疫苗信心的信息。我们分析了针对意大利两个专门针对疫苗的电视节目发布的推文的情绪，一个节目基于科学证据[Presadiretta (PD)]，另一个节目包括反疫苗人士[Virus (VS)]。
在两个电视节目播出的 8 天期间，根据情绪对有关疫苗的推文进行分类。通过泊松、拟泊松或逻辑单变量回归测试两次广播之间推文和用户特征的差异。我们通过单变量拟二项逻辑回归调查了用户特征与情绪之间的关联。
我们下载了与疫苗相关的 12180 条推文，由 5447 位用户发布；276 位用户在两次广播中都发了推文。在 50.4%的推文中，情绪是积极的，37.7%是消极的，10.1%是中立的（其余的推文不明确或带有疑问）。与 PD 相比，VS 的正/负比更高（6.96 比 4.24，P<0.001）。用户的关注者人数（OR 1.68，P<0.001）、朋友数（OR 1.83，P<0.001）、发布的推文数（OR 1.46，P<0.001）和经常使用的用户（OR 3.26，P<0.001）与积极情绪相关。
Twitter 用户对专门针对疫苗的电视节目反应非常强烈。情绪主要是积极的，尤其是在非常活跃的用户中。在电视上展示反疫苗立场会在 Twitter 上引起积极的情绪。在专门针对疫苗的电视节目期间收听社交媒体可以提供多样化的数据，公共卫生机构可以利用这些数据来制定有针对性的疫苗宣传倡议。
