JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Public health surveillance is based on the continuous and systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data. This informs the development of early warning systems, monitor epidemics, and document the impact of intervention measures. With the introduction of sources external to the traditional methods, non-traditional data sources, and specifically sources available on the internet (i.e. Internet-based sources), have impacted the field of public health surveillance. New opportunities fostered by the underlying availability and scale of Internet-based sources have paved the way for novel approaches for disease surveillance, exploration of health communities, and the study of epidemic dynamics.

Objective:

The aim of this review is to assess research findings regarding the application of Internet-based sources for public health surveillance, as well as to understand how the information provided by these sources correlates with our understanding of diseases.

Methods:

A systematic literature review was conducted targeting publications between 2012 and 2017 that leveraged Internet-based sources for public health surveillance, epidemic dynamics, exploration of health communities, health-topic identification, and disease characterization. The search results were filtered accordingly to previously defined inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Results:

Spanning a total of eighty-six publications we were able to determine the predominance of infectious disease as a preferred case study (77%), with 50% focusing on Influenza-Like-Illnesses. Within the eight categories of sources identified (search queries, social networks, news, fora, websites, video-sharing platform, encyclopedia, and obituaries), social networks, particularly Twitter, were applied in 49% of the reviewed publications. In addition, we identified a clear effect of news media bias on the categories search queries, social networks, fora, and encyclopedia.

Conclusions:

Internet-based sources are a valuable proxy to study illnesses affecting the population, however, it is important to characterize which diseases are best suited for the available sources; literature shows that the level of engagement among online platforms can be a potential indicator. The necessity to understand the populations’ online behaviour is required, and the exploration of health information dissemination and its content is still vastly unexplored. With this, we can better understand how the population communicates about illness online and in the process benefit public health.