12-year observation of tweets about rubella in Japan: A retrospective infodemiology study

Abstract

Although rubella is an infectious disease that can be prevented by vaccination, there have been periodic epidemics in Japan, mainly among adult males. One of the reasons for this is the lack of interest in vaccination among the target adult male population. To clarify the reality of the discussion about rubella and provide basic resource for enlightening activities for rubella prevention, we collected and analyzed Twitter posts about rubella in Japanese between January 2010 and May 2022. We examined time series, number of tweets per account, tweeted contents, and retweet network. We found that the weekly number of rubella reports and the number of Twitter posts fluctuate simultaneously. During the 2018 rubella epidemic, the number of tweets increased due to the start of the rubella routine vaccination program and the use of cartoons to raise awareness. While 80% of the accounts posted three times or fewer during the period, some accounts posted multiple times per day for more than 12 years. Medical terms such as vaccines and antibodies were frequently used in the tweet contexts. In the retweet activity, a variety of actors, including mass media, medical professionals, and even rubella sufferers, contributed to disseminate rubella-related information.