title: Tweeting back: predicting new cases of back pain with mass social media data.
abstract: Back pain is a global health problem. Recent research has shown that risk factors that are proximal to the onset of back pain might be important targets for preventive interventions. Rapid communication through social media might be useful for delivering timely interventions that target proximal risk factors. Identifying individuals who are likely to discuss back pain on Twitter could provide useful information to guide online interventions.
  
  
  
  We used a case-crossover study design for a sample of 742 028 tweets about back pain to quantify the risks associated with a new tweet about back pain.
  
  
  
  The odds of tweeting about back pain just after tweeting about selected physical, psychological, and general health factors were 1.83 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.80-1.85), 1.85 (95% CI: 1.83-1.88), and 1.29 (95% CI, 1.27-1.30), respectively.
  
  
  
  These findings give directions for future research that could use social media for innovative public health interventions.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), Sydney, NSW, Australia Prince of Wales Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Hopin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), Sydney, NSW, Australia Prince of Wales Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: James H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: McAuley
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), Sydney, NSW, Australia Prince of Wales Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hübscher
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Heidi G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.affiliation: EMGO+ Institute, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands The George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kamper
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), Sydney, NSW, Australia Sansom Institute for Health Research, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia Lorimer.Moseley@unisa.edu.au.
authors.forename: G Lorimer
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Moseley
mesh_terms: D001416:Back Pain; D054626:Consumer Health Information; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D061108:Social Media
keywords: Twitter; back pain; case-crossover; public health; social media