Social Media and Burn First Aid: Feasibility of parent conversation data to inform health interventions (Preprint)

Abstract

Burns are common childhood injuries which can lead to serious physical and psychological outcomes. Although appropriate first aid can significantly reduce the pain and severity these injuries, we know that many parents’ knowledge of appropriate burn first aid is inadequate. Parents increasingly seek health advice online, thus social media conversations provide a potential source of insight to aid the design and evaluation of burn first aid interventions for parents.

This study aimed to determine the feasibility of finding, accessing and analysing parent burn first aid conversations on social media with a view to informing intervention research.

A parent focus group and survey informed initial identification of social media platforms, and accessibility was investigated according to practical and ethical parameters. A taxonomy of search terms was collated and a search strategy was devised for each of the following platforms: Facebook, Mumsnet, Netmums, Twitter, Reddit and YouTube. Data were extracted from each platform and filtered to remove irrelevant content using word embeddings, topic modelling and manual selection in succession. Filtered data was analysed according to amount of data available from each platform and how this data was distributed through time. Burn first aid conversations were described in terms of length of conversation, number of participants, and the purpose of the initial post (e.g. asking for or offering advice). Burn type and frequency of key word occurrence was also compared between platforms.

It was not feasible to access Facebook parenting groups, and the Facebook pages and Reddit subreddits we searched did not return relevant data. However, Mumsnet, Netmums, YouTube and Twitter were all accessible and returned relevant data on burn first aid. The amount of available data varied across platforms and through time. Sunburn was identified as a topic across all four platforms. Conversation initiation was predominantly for the purpose of seeking advice on the parenting fora Mumsnet and Netmums (96.6% and 100.0% of initial posts respectively), whereas YouTube and Twitter were chiefly offering advice (94.8% and 64.0% respectively). Contact burns and sunburn were the most frequent burn types that Mumsnet (31.9% and 24.5% respectively) Netmums (8.0% and 56.0% respectively) users asked for advice about.

This study provides a suite of bespoke search strategies, tailored to a range of social media platforms, for the extraction and analysis of burn first aid conversation data. Our methodology provides a template for other topics not conveniently identified by a specific word or hashtag. YouTube and Twitter show potential utility in measuring advice offered before and after interventions, and extending the reach of messaging. Mumsnet and Netmums present the best opportunity for informing burn first aid intervention design via in-depth qualitative investigation into parents’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviours.

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