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Applying GIS and Machine Learning Methods to Twitter Data for Multiscale Surveillance of Influenza

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  • Chris Allen
  • Ming-Hsiang Tsou
  • Anoshe Aslam
  • Anna Nagel
  • Jean-Mark Gawron

Abstract

Traditional methods for monitoring influenza are haphazard and lack fine-grained details regarding the spatial and temporal dynamics of outbreaks. Twitter gives researchers and public health officials an opportunity to examine the spread of influenza in real-time and at multiple geographical scales. In this paper, we introduce an improved framework for monitoring influenza outbreaks using the social media platform Twitter. Relying upon techniques from geographic information science (GIS) and data mining, Twitter messages were collected, filtered, and analyzed for the thirty most populated cities in the United States during the 2013–2014 flu season. The results of this procedure are compared with national, regional, and local flu outbreak reports, revealing a statistically significant correlation between the two data sources. The main contribution of this paper is to introduce a comprehensive data mining process that enhances previous attempts to accurately identify tweets related to influenza. Additionally, geographical information systems allow us to target, filter, and normalize Twitter messages.

Suggested Citation

  • Chris Allen & Ming-Hsiang Tsou & Anoshe Aslam & Anna Nagel & Jean-Mark Gawron, 2016. "Applying GIS and Machine Learning Methods to Twitter Data for Multiscale Surveillance of Influenza," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(7), pages 1-10, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0157734
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157734
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Andrea Freyer Dugas & Mehdi Jalalpour & Yulia Gel & Scott Levin & Fred Torcaso & Takeru Igusa & Richard E Rothman, 2013. "Influenza Forecasting with Google Flu Trends," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(2), pages 1-7, February.
    2. Declan Butler, 2013. "When Google got flu wrong," Nature, Nature, vol. 494(7436), pages 155-156, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Amir Hassan Zadeh & Hamed M. Zolbanin & Ramesh Sharda & Dursun Delen, 2019. "Social Media for Nowcasting Flu Activity: Spatio-Temporal Big Data Analysis," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 743-760, August.
    2. Victor Olsavszky & Mihnea Dosius & Cristian Vladescu & Johannes Benecke, 2020. "Time Series Analysis and Forecasting with Automated Machine Learning on a National ICD-10 Database," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Jungyoon Kim & Jihye Lim, 2021. "A Deep Neural Network-Based Method for Prediction of Dementia Using Big Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-13, May.
    4. Sangwon Chae & Sungjun Kwon & Donghyun Lee, 2018. "Predicting Infectious Disease Using Deep Learning and Big Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-20, July.
    5. Songhee Cheon & Jungyoon Kim & Jihye Lim, 2019. "The Use of Deep Learning to Predict Stroke Patient Mortality," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-12, May.
    6. Siqing Shan & Qi Yan & Yigang Wei, 2020. "Infectious or Recovered? Optimizing the Infectious Disease Detection Process for Epidemic Control and Prevention Based on Social Media," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-25, September.
    7. Sameer Kumar & Chong Xu & Nidhi Ghildayal & Charu Chandra & Muer Yang, 2022. "Social media effectiveness as a humanitarian response to mitigate influenza epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 319(1), pages 823-851, December.
    8. Ghasem Javadi & Mohammad Taleai, 2020. "Integration of User Generated Geo-contents and Official Data to Assess Quality of Life in Intra-national Level," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 205-235, November.

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