Scientists were able to identify conditions using data from social media.
Scientists have used people's Facebook posts to identify conditions from depression to STIs in a study. The researchers wanted to see if looking at a person's Facebook profile was a more accurate way of predicting and identifying conditions they had than their demographic information, such as age, sex, and race., the team recruited 999 participants and studied the 20 million words they had collectively posted in 949,530 Facebook status updates on the social media platform.
Terms like"stomach,""head," and"hurt," which suggested an individual was suffering physical symptoms of a psychological disorder could predict they had depression. The authors argued that like the genome, which can reveal the genetics of an individual and their risk for certain conditions, their language use on social media could constitute a"social mediome." Social media is also easier to access than a person's genetic information, and could be used to personalize healthcare.
However, she acknowledged the sample of patients were receiving care in one location, so the results might not be generalizable. In the study, the authors highlighted the approach is somewhat limited because the words only indicate a correlation with a condition, and can't explain why an individual has an illness.
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