Carvajal P*, Balanay JG, Shearman S and Richards SL (2022). Facebook and Mosquito-borne Disease Outbreaks: An Analysis of Public Responses to Federal Health Agencies’ Posts about Dengue and Zika in 2016. PLOS Global Public Health 2(9):e0000977. doi:10.1371/journal.pgph.0000977

Abstract

Responses of Facebook users to four United States federal health agencies’ social media posts about dengue and Zika (mosquito-borne diseases), surveillance, and control during the Zika outbreak in 2016 were tracked. Official Facebook pages of health agencies were analyzed, and a qualitative analysis program was used to perform a thematic analysis of the data on public responses to health agency posts. Public sentiment analysis showed that Facebook users had a negative sentiment towards health information observed in this study. Themes were identified in the studied posts, giving insight into the nature of public discussions and responses to federal health agencies. Themes were assessed based on the way the agencies’ mosquito-borne disease information was received by the public through the social media platform, Facebook. Results indicate that public perception/understanding of mosquito-borne disease outbreaks can be assessed by analyzing public interactions with health agencies on Facebook. The importance of maximizing effectiveness by addressing issues in sharing health education information, risk communication, and monitoring of public responses by health agencies through social media platforms is discussed.

*Pablo Carvajal is a recent alumnus of the ECU MS Environmental Health Program (Spring ’22).