title: Tanning bed burns reported on Twitter: over 15,000 in 2013.
abstract: Few surveillance tools exist for monitoring tanning bed injuries. Twitter data were examined to identify and describe reports of tanning bed-caused burns. Tweets sent in 2013 containing keywords for tanning bed use and burning were content analyzed to determine whether a burn caused by a tanning bed was described, and additional data on tanning behavior and burn characteristics were extracted. After content assessment, 15,178 (64 %) tweets were found to describe a tanning bed-caused burn. Sites most reportedly burnt were buttocks (n = 3117), face/head (n = 1020), and chest/breast (n = 546). Alarmingly, 200 burns to the eyes/eyelids were mentioned. A total of 456 tweets described burning >1 time from a tanning bed. A total of 211 tweets mentioned falling asleep inside the tanning bed. In 2013, over 15,000 tweets reported tanning bed-caused burns. Twitter data provides unique insight into tanning behaviors and injuries not captured through traditional public health surveillance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, 135 Dauer Drive, Chapel Hill, NC, CB 7440, USA. aseiden@live.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Andrew B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Seidenberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Sherry L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Pagoto
authors.affiliation: National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland.
authors.forename: Theodore A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Vickey
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Linos
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Mackenzie R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Wehner
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Renata Dalla
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Alan C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Geller
mesh_terms: D002056:Burns / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D061108:Social Media; D055108:Sunbathing / Q000145:classification*; D014481:United States
keywords: Burns; Social media; Surveillance; Tanning beds