Author Faculty (Discipline)

Nursing

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2017

Early Online Version

8-22-2017

JOURNAL

Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology

VOLUME NUMBER

38

ISSUE NUMBER

11

PAGE NUMBERS

1271-1276

ISSN

1559-6834

Embargo Period

9-4-2018

ANZSRC / FoR Code

100599 Communications Technologies not elsewhere classified| 111002 Clinical Nursing: Primary (Preventative)| 111711 Health Information Systems (incl. Surveillance)| 111716 Preventive Medicine

Avondale Research Centre

Lifestyle Research Centre

Reportable Items (HERDC/ERA)

C1

Abstract

Objective: To examine tweeting activity, networks, and common topics mentioned on Twitter at four international infection control and infectious disease conferences.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Methods: An independent company was commissioned to undertake a Twitter ‘trawl’ each month between July 1, 2016, and November 31, 2016. The trawl identified any tweets that contained the official hashtags of the conferences for (1) the UK Infection Prevention Society, (2) IDWeek 2016, (3) the Federation of Infectious Society/Hospital Infection Society, and (4) the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control. Topics from each tweet were identified, and an examination of the frequency and timing of tweets was performed. A social network analysis was performed to illustrate connections between users. A multivariate binary logistic regression model was developed to explore the predictors of ‘retweets.’

Results: In total, 23,718 tweets were identified as using 1 of the 2 hashtags of interest. The results demonstrated that the most tweets were posted during the conferences. Network analysis demonstrated a diversity of twitter networks. A link to a web address was a significant predictor of whether a tweet would be retweeted (odds ratio [OR], 2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.9–2.1). Other significant factors predicting a retweet included tweeting on topics such as Clostridium difficile (OR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.7–2.4) and the media (OR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.6–2.0). Tweets that contained a picture were significantly less likely to be retweeted (OR, 0.06; 95% CI, 0.05–0.08).

Conclusion: Twitter is a useful tool for information sharing and networking at infection control conferences.

Link to publisher version (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2017.170

Peer Review

Before publication

Comments

Used by permission: Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology

The article available for download is the pre-publication version. The final published version may be accessed from the publisher here.

© 2017 by The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). All rights reserved.

At the time of writing Philip Russo was affiliated with Deakin University and Griffith University.

Associated Research Project

https://research.avondale.edu.au/research_documentation/58/

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