title: Twitter=quitter? An analysis of Twitter quit smoking social networks.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Widely popular, Twitter, a free social networking and micro-blogging service, offers potential for health promotion. This study examined the activity of Twitter quit smoking social network accounts.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional analysis identified 153 activated Twitter quit smoking accounts dating back to 2007 and examined recent account activity for the month of August 2010.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The accounts had a median of 155 followers and 82 total tweets per account; 49% of accounts had >100 tweets. Posted content was largely inconsistent with clinical guidelines; 48% linked to commercial sites for quitting smoking and 43% had tweets on e-cigarettes. In August 2010, 81 of the accounts (53%) were still active.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Though popular for building quit smoking social networks, many of the Twitter accounts were no longer active, and tweet content was largely inconsistent with clinical guidelines. Future research is needed to examine the effectiveness of Twitter for supporting smoking cessation.
authors: Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143-0984, USA. jprochaska@ucsf.edu
authors: Judith J
authors: JJ
authors: Prochaska
authors: Cornelia
authors: C
authors: Pechmann
authors: Romina
authors: R
authors: Kim
authors: James M
authors: JM
authors: Leonhardt
mesh_terms: D057218:Blogging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D060756:Social Networking