The research team studied more than 3.6 million tweets between 2012 and 2014 that contained at least one keyword related to opioid misuse. They used software that distinguished between tweets that credibly mentioned opioid misuse and spam tweets.
Researchers used Twitter metadata to identify the location of each tweet. They compared the metadata to geographical data in the 2013-2015 National Surveys on Drug Usage and Health, which is often used to identify substance abuse trends in the nation.
The information researchers gathered from Twitter strongly matched the state-by-state information contained in the NSDUH, indicating Twitter can be used to fairly accurately track opioid misuse in the U.S..
“Traditional methods of gauging opioid misuse in an area rely on compiling reports from local emergency rooms and poison control call centers,” said Michael Chary, MD, PhD, resident physician at New York PresbyterianQueens Hospital in New York City. “Through social media we can observe a much larger fraction of the population, perhaps intervening before things reach the level of needing emergency medical care.”
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