Investigating biomedical research literature in the blogosphere: a case study of diabetes and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c)
| Autor: | Kathleen Amos, Anatoliy Gruzd, Fiona A. Black, Thi Ngoc Yen Le |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: |
PubMed
Blogging Blogosphere Internet privacy Information Dissemination Information Storage and Retrieval Health Informatics Library and Information Sciences Bibliometrics World Wide Web Diabetes Mellitus Data Mining Humans Medicine Social media Social network analysis Glycated Hemoglobin business.industry Popularity Web mining Papers The Internet business Attitude to Health Social Media |
| Zdroj: | Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA. 100:34-42 |
| ISSN: | 1558-9439 1536-5050 |
| DOI: | 10.3163/1536-5050.100.1.007 |
| Popis: | Objective: The research investigated the relationshipbetween biomedical literature and blogospherediscussions about diabetes in order to explore the roleof Web 2.0 technologies in disseminating healthinformation. Are blogs that cite biomedical literatureperceived as more trustworthy in the blogosphere, asmeasured by their popularity and interconnectionswith other blogs?Methods: Web mining, social network analysis, andcontent analysis were used to analyze a largesample of blogs to determine how often biomedicalliterature is referenced in blogs on diabetes and howthese blogs interconnect with others in the healthblogosphere.Results: Approximately 10% of the 3,005 blogsanalyzed cite at least 1 article from the dataset of 2,246articles. The most influential blogs, as measured by in-links, are written by diabetes patients and tend not tocite biomedical literature. In general, blogs that do notcite biomedical literature tend not to link to blogs thatdo.Conclusions: There is a large communication gapbetween health professional and personal diabetesblogs. Personal blogs do not tend to link to blogs byhealth professionals. Diabetes patients may be turningto the blogosphere for reasons other thanauthoritative information. They may be seekingemotional support and exchange of personal stories.INTRODUCTIONThe widespread use of the Internet by lay individualswho require health information is well known [1]. Ithas been estimated that almost 80% of Internet usershave searched for health information online [2]. Thedevelopment of Web 2.0 applications, especially thoserelating to social networking, provides additionalways for individuals to access health information.Patients, along with their families and friends,increasingly seek and share health information in amultitude of public and semipublic online venues.Among Web 2.0 applications, blogs have emerged as apowerful medium through which computer-literateindividuals can express themselves. As more peoplebegin to blog, many more people are also starting torely on information provided by the blogosphere.Patients, caregivers, and doctors are increasinglyturning to the blogosphere to search for information,discuss treatment options, and share their stories andexperiences [2, 3]. Blogs and other Web 2.0 technol-ogies enable Internet users to actively contribute tothe abundance and diversity of online content.Technorati estimates that, between 2002 and 2008,more than 133 million blogs were launched andalmost 1 million blog posts were published every day[4].Recent work by Neal and McKenzie indicates thatlibrarians’ criteria for evaluating sources should movetoward more user-centered criteria. Sources tradition-ally considered authoritative may not necessarily bewhat the lay public desires [5]. The blogosphererepresents a large source of wide-ranging opinionsand attitudes. As with the Internet generally, not allinformation published in the blogosphere is credibleor reliable [6–8]. Patients could be misled by errone-ous or outdated information. Bloggers interested in |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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