Content-Driven Analysis of an Online Community for Smoking Cessation: Integration of Qualitative Techniques,Automated Text Analysis,and Affiliation Networks

Objectives. We identified content-specific patterns of network diffusion underlying smoking cessation in the context of online platforms, with the aim of generating targeted intervention strategies.Methods. QuitNet is an online social network for smoking cessation. We analyzed 16 492 de-identified peer-to-peer messages from 1423 members, posted between March 1 and April 30, 2007. Our mixed-methods approach comprised qualitative coding, automated text analysis, and affiliation network analysis to identify, visualize, and analyze content-specific communication patterns underlying smoking behavior.Results. Themes we identified in QuitNet messages included relapse, QuitNet-specific traditions, and cravings. QuitNet members who were exposed to other abstinent members by exchanging content related to interpersonal themes (e.g., social support, traditions, progress) tended to abstain. Themes found in other types of content did not show significant correlation with abstinence.Conclusions. Modeling health-related affiliation networks through content-driven methods can enable the identification of specific content related to higher abstinence rates, which facilitates targeted health promotion.Epidemiological evidence indicates that modifiable risky health behaviors place a substantial socioeconomic burden on human health and wellness.1 Understanding human behavior in real-time settings is essential to improving health outcomes related to these behaviors.2,3 Technological advances in connectivity offer the means to obtain potentially valuable data sets in the form of electronic traces of the activities of online social communities. These data may help us to understand the intra- and interindividual intricacies of health-related behaviors. Studies of online and offline social networks provide valuable insight into social influence, information spread, and behavioral diffusion.4–6 Most of these analyses have paid more attention to the frequency of communication between members than to its content. The content, however, is relevant to behavior change theories, which address the use of specialized content to stimulate and support individuals to achieve a desired change.7,8 Contemporary work on social media data rarely addresses this fundamental concern of behavior change theorists.Outside the context of online networks, several theories have been formulated to explain behavior change. Some, such as the Transtheoretical Model,9 belong to the intrapersonal category; others, such as Social Cognitive Theory10 and social network and support models,11 are classified as interpersonal. (Appendix A, available as a supplement to the online version of this article at http://www.ajph.org, provides an overview of the theoretical constructs.) Empirical research on the applicability of these models to behavior change of health consumers in the digital era is minimal.12 Recent research showed that participation in health issue–specific social networking sites significantly influenced social factors such as identification, perceived subjective norms, and social support, which in turn resulted in greater smoking cessation self-efficacy.13 Content inclusion in analytical models of social networks can enable us to examine the content-specific patterns of social factors underlying behavior change. Through mapping of the specific content to theories, such content inclusion can facilitate the development of network interventions for health behavior changes by harnessing the power of social relationships.Studies of QuitNet, an online social network for smoking cessation, have examined the structure of peer-to-peer communication patterns and provided insights into social integrators and opinion leaders.5,14 Previous work showed the applicability of affiliation networks to real-world diffusion networks, enriching our understanding of the affiliation-based sources of influence on individuals’ behavior. Examples include the diffusion of (1) ratification of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control by comembership with an online forum among countries15; (2) gunshot victimization by co-offending with victims among Chicago, Illinois, gangsters16; (3) substance use by coparticipating in school-sponsored sports or co-identifying with the same crowd types17,18; and (4) sexual behavior by coaffiliating with venues among male sex workers.19We used affiliation networks to analyze messages for content-specific patterns of network diffusion. We took an interdisciplinary approach, integrating methods from sociobehavioral sciences, social network analytics, and biomedical informatics. We employed qualitative techniques derived from grounded theory, automated text analysis, and affiliation network analysis to investigate the communication patterns underlying human behavior in online environments. Our study had 3 major components: (1) a qualitative study of human communication within user-generated data in QuitNet, (2) computational text analysis to further extend this analysis, and (3) identification of communication patterns pertinent to behavior change in affiliation networks. We anticipate that the insights gained from this research will enhance our understanding of behavior change and will have implications for the design of sociobehavioral interventions that draw upon social influence.     

Automatic external defibrillators: importance of field testing to evaluate performance

A new automatic external defibrillator was tested first against a tape-recorded data base of rhythms and then during use by first-responding fire fighters in a tiered emergency system. The sensitivity for correctly classifying ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia was substantially less during clinical testing in 298 patients than would have been predicted from preclinical results: 52% of ventricular fibrillation analyses in patients were correctly classified versus 88% of episodes in the data base, and 22 versus 86%, respectively, for ventricular tachycardia (p less than 0.001). The detection algorithm was modified and evaluated further in another 322 patients. The modified detector performed substantially better than did the one that had been designed from prerecorded rhythms: with its use, 118 (94%) of 125 patients in ventricular fibrillation were counter-shocked compared with 91 (77%) of 118 similar patients with use of the initial algorithm (p less than 0.001). No inappropriate shocks were delivered. This improvement resulted in a shorter time to first shock (p less than 0.01) and more shocks being delivered for persistent or recurrent episodes of ventricular fibrillation (p less than 0.05). Of 620 patients treated with the automatic defibrillator, 243 (39%) had ventricular fibrillation; 57 (23%) of the 243 regained pulse and blood pressure before paramedics arrived, 141 (58%) were admitted to hospital and 71 (29%) were discharged.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Long-term effects of exercise on psychological functioning in older men and women

The purpose of this study was to determine the psychological, behavioral, and cognitive changes associated with up to 14 months of aerobic exercise training. For the first 4 months of the study, 101 older (greater than 60 years) men and women were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Aerobic exercise, Yoga, or a Waiting List control group. Before and following the intervention, all subjects completed a comprehensive assessment battery, including measures of mood and cognitive functioning. A semi-crossover design was employed such that, following completion of the second assessment, all subjects completed 4 months of aerobic exercise and underwent a third assessment. Subjects were given the option of participating in 6 additional months of supervised aerobic exercise (14 months total), and all subjects, regardless of their exercise status, completed a fourth assessment. Results indicated that subjects experienced a 10-15% improvement in aerobic capacity. In general, there were relatively few improvements in cognitive performance associated with aerobic exercise, although subjects who maintained their exercise participation for 14 months experienced improvements in some psychiatric symptoms. However, the healthy subjects in this study were functioning at a relatively high level to begin with, and exercise training may produce greater improvements among elderly with concomitant physical or emotional impairments.     

Identification of an oncogenic form of the thrombopoietin receptor MPL using retrovirus-mediated gene transfer

Thrombopoietin and its receptor (MPL) are important regulators of megakaryopoiesis. We have identified an activating mutation of MPL using a combination of a retrovirus-mediated gene transfer and polymerase chain reaction-driven random mutagenesis. This point mutation causes a single amino acid substitution from Ser498 to Asn498 in the transmembrane region and abrogates factor-dependency of all interleukin-3-dependent cell lines tested. Murine interleukin-3- dependent Ba/F3 cells expressing the mutated but not the normal form of MPL were tumorigenic when transduced into syngeneic mice. Analysis of intracellular signaling pathways indicated that the mutant MPL protein constitutively activated two distinct signaling pathways, SHC-Raf-MAPK and JAK2-STAT3/STAT5.     

Accuracy of computer-interpreted electrocardiography in selecting patients for thrombolytic therapy. MITI Project Investigators

A prehospital computer-interpreted electrocardiogram (ECG) was obtained in 1,189 patients with chest pain of suspected cardiac origin during an ongoing trial of prehospital thrombolytic therapy in acute myocardial infarction. Electrocardiograms were performed by paramedics 1.5 +/- 1.2 h after the onset of symptoms. Of 391 patients with evidence of acute myocardial infarction, 202 (52%) were identified as having ST segment elevation (acute injury) by the computer-interpreted ECG compared with 259 (66%) by an electrocardiographer (p less than 0.001). Of 798 patients with chest pain but no infarction, 785 (98%) were appropriately excluded by computer compared with 757 (95%) by an electrocardiographer (p less than 0.001). The positive predictive value of the computer- and physician-interpreted ECG was, respectively, 94% and 86% and the negative predictive value was 81% and 85%. Prehospital screening of possible candidates for thrombolytic therapy with the aid of a computerized ECG is feasible, highly specific and with further enhancement can speed the care of all patients with acute myocardial infarction.     

Ventricular fibrillation causes sudden death in Southeast Asian immigrants

Young, male, Southeast Asian immigrants living in the United States have a high incidence of unexplained, sudden, nocturnal death. We report the cases of three patients, two Laotians and one Filipino, who were resuscitated and subsequently studied extensively. Each patient was having ventricular fibrillation when first examined by paramedics outside the hospital, and episodes of fibrillation recurred in the early hospital course. Clinical evaluation found no significant coronary atherosclerosis or structural cardiac disease. One patient is asymptomatic after 2 years; the second patient died suddenly at 4 months; and the third is asymptomatic but had inducible ventricular tachycardia on electrophysiologic testing 6 months after resuscitation. The mechanism of sudden death in young Southeast Asian men appears to be ventricular fibrillation. The cause of the arrhythmia is unclear, although in our patients the arrhythmia was not an isolated event; underlying predispositions to further cardiac arrest persisted.