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.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 271-276 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Translational behavioral medicine |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 1 2016 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Burns
- Social media
- Surveillance
- Tanning beds
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Applied Psychology
- Behavioral Neuroscience