PRISM 2021 Attendance Survey
Planning on joining us in San Francisco for the in-person PRISM Health Symposium? Won’t be able to attend? Fill out our attendance survey or visit bit.ly/attend-prism! Please share with folks you think may be interested in attending.
Commentaries
How Tech is Supporting LGBTQ+ Teens
In this piece for Psychology Today, PRISM Steering Committee member, Danielle Ramo, PhD, shares that research conducted during the pandemic has shown that targeted LGBTQ+ digital spaces, such as Trevor Space, Discord, and Gender Spectrum Lounge, have helped young people find support and community. Additionally, LGBTQ+ youth are finding representation on TikTok and Instagram by following influencers and advocacy organizations. Dr. Ramo encourages that now is the time to focus on how online spaces and technology can be utilized as a positive resource for LGBTQ+ youth.
Social media networks must crack down on medical misinformation
During their June 2021 Special Meeting, the American Medical Association called for social media companies to improve their content moderation of medical and public health information. These improvements include better content monitoring, expansion of recommendation engines focused on misinformation, and more robust integration of verified health information. Furthermore, the organization encouraged social media companies and organizations to disseminate accurate health information from public health organizations and health-policy experts and address the issue as appropriate through collaborations with relevant stakeholders.
Recent Social Media and Health Publications
Shah N, Li J, Mackey TK. An unsupervised machine learning approach for the detection and characterization of illicit drug-dealing comments and interactions on Instagram. Subst Abus. 2021 Jul 2:1-5. doi: 10.1080/08897077.2021.1941508. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34214410.
To detect and classify prescription and illicit drug-related buying and selling interactions on Instagram, this study by PRISM Steering Committee member, Tim K. Mackey, PhD, MAS, used unsupervised machine learning to thematically summarize Instagram comments. Comments primarily originated from drug sellers and online pharmacies, with key themes including providing contact information through encrypted third-party messaging platforms, drug availability, and price inquiry. Commonly offered drugs for sale included scheduled controlled substances such as Adderall and Xanax, as well as illicit hallucinogens and stimulants. Comments from prospective buyers of drugs frequently included inquiries about price and availability.
Bowen DA, O'Donnell J, Sumner SA. Increases in online posts about synthetic opioids preceding increases in synthetic opioid death rates: a retrospective observational study. J Gen Intern Med. 2019 Dec;34(12):2702-2704. doi: 10.1007/s11606-019-05255-5. PMID: 31468343; PMCID: PMC6854351.
The rapid transition from prescription opioids to heroin to synthetic opioids has been a challenging aspect of the opioid epidemic. This retrospective analysis aimed to assess the degree to which an early warning system could have provided early insights about the rise in synthetic opioids death. Using all publicly available posts from drug-related message boards on Reddit, researchers observe a similar pattern of early, rapid growth in the rate of change in synthetic opioids posts to posts about other leading non-synthetic opioids (i.e. oxycodone). However, posts about synthetic opioids increased significantly before increases in synthetic opioids deaths. Increases in posts about emerging fentanyl analogs were also identified.
Vogel EA, Ramo DE, Prochaska JJ, Meacham MC, Layton JF, Humfleet GL. Problematic social media use in sexual and gender minority young adults: observational study. JMIR Ment Health. 2021 May 28;8(5):e23688. doi: 10.2196/23688. PMID: 34047276; PMCID: PMC8196355.
Co-authored by PRISM Steering Committee Members, Danielle Ramo, PhD and Meredith Meacham, PhD, MPH, this study examined the associations among social media use, sexual and gender minority (SGM)-related internalized stigma, emotional social support, and depressive symptoms in SGM young adults. Participants with greater problematic social media use had greater internalized SGM stigma and depressive symptoms and lower perceived emotional social support. Greater internalized SGM stigma was significantly associated with greater problematic social media use. In addition, participants with greater depressive symptoms had marginally greater problematic social media use (P=.05).
