Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: May 16, 2019
Date Accepted: Nov 12, 2019
A Data-Driven Social Network Intervention for Improving Organ Donation Awareness among Minorities: Analysis and Optimization of a Cross-Sectional Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Increasing the number of organ donors may enhance organ transplantation, but past health interventions have been ineffective in generating both large-scale and sustainable changes, particularly among minorities.
Objective:
Propose a conceptual data-driven framework that employs social media to track social markers of public health awareness among select demographics using Twitter and delivers an optimized social network intervention (SNI) to targeted audiences using Facebook.
Methods:
We monitored social markers of awareness across the US over a 1-year period using Twitter and examined their association using empirical data from organ donor registries. We delivered this social network intervention on Facebook with and without optimized awareness content (i.e., educational content with Web link to online donor registration website) to low-income Hispanics in Los Angeles over a 1-month period, and measured the daily number of impressions (i.e., exposure to information) and clicks (i.e., engagement) among the target audience.
Results:
Digital markers of organ donation awareness on Twitter are associated with donation registration (r=.36, p<.05), and each additional 10 organ-related tweets are associated with a 3% increase in the number of organ donor registrations at the city-level. Our Social Network Intervention on Facebook effectively reached 1 million users and fostered 21 thousand additional clicks after optimization.
Conclusions:
Our framework can provide a real-time characterization of organ donation awareness, while effectively delivering tailored interventions to minority communities. It has the potential to create large-scale, sustainable interventions capable of raising awareness and effectively mitigating disparities in organ donation.
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