IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i17p3056-d260222.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Where Do People Vape? Insights from Twitter Data

Author

Listed:
  • Anuja Majmundar

    (Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90032, USA)

  • Jon-Patrick Allem

    (Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90032, USA)

  • Tess Boley Cruz

    (Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90032, USA)

  • Jennifer B. Unger

    (Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90032, USA)

Abstract

Background : Emerging evidence suggests that exposure to secondhand and thirdhand aerosol from electronic cigarettes may have serious health risks including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Social media data can help identify common locations referenced in vaping-related discussions and offer clues about where individuals vape. These insights can strengthen current tobacco regulations and prioritize new policies to improve public health. This study identified commonly referenced locations in vaping-related discussions on Twitter in 2018. Methods : Vaping-related posts to Twitter were obtained from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2018. Rule-based classifiers categorized each Twitter post into 11 location-related categories (social venues, living spaces, stores, modes of transportation, schools, workplaces, healthcare offices, eateries, correctional facilities, religious institutions, and miscellaneous) using a data dictionary of location-related keywords ( n = 290,816). Results : The most prevalent category was social venues (17.9%), followed by living spaces (16.7%), stores (15.9%), modes of transportation (15.5%), schools (14.9%), and workplaces (11.9%). Other categories pertained to: healthcare offices (2.0%), eateries (1.2%), correctional facilities (0.7%), and religious institutions (0.4%). Conclusion : This study suggests that locations related to socialization venues may be priority areas for future surveillance and enforcement of smoke-free air policies. Similarly, development and enforcement of similar policies at workplaces, schools and multi-unit housing may curb exposure to secondhand and thirdhand aerosol among the public.

Suggested Citation

  • Anuja Majmundar & Jon-Patrick Allem & Tess Boley Cruz & Jennifer B. Unger, 2019. "Where Do People Vape? Insights from Twitter Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-5, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:17:p:3056-:d:260222
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/17/3056/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/17/3056/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vincent Soulignac & François Pinet & Mathilde Bodelet & Hélène Gross, 2023. "What Lessons Can Be Learned for the Agroecological Transition From the Use of Social Media in Preventive Medicine?," International Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Information Systems (IJAEIS), IGI Global, vol. 14(1), pages 1-28, January.
    2. Carolyn M. Reyes-Guzman & Minal Patel & Teresa W. Wang & Nalini Corcy & Dana Chomenko & Beth Slotman & Robert E. Vollinger, 2023. "Disparities in Smokefree and Vapefree Home Rules and Smokefree Policy Attitudes Based on Housing Type and Cigarette Smoking Status, United States, 2019," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(14), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Anuja Majmundar & Jon-Patrick Allem & Jennifer B. Unger & Tess Boley Cruz, 2021. "Vaping and COVID-19: Insights for Public Health and Clinical Care from Twitter," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-8, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:17:p:3056-:d:260222. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.