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Social media provides real-time data to help track foodborne illness
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Social media websites, such as the restaurant review site Yelp, can be used in tandem with traditional surveillance systems to help track and expedite disaster response to foodborne illnesses, according to recent study results.
“Online reviews of food service businesses offer a unique resource for disease surveillance,” Elaine O. Nsoesie, PhD, a research fellow in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, said in a press release. “Similar to notification or complaint systems, reports of foodborne illness on review sites could serve as early indicators of foodborne disease outbreaks and spur investigation by local health authorities. Information gleaned from such novel data streams could aid traditional surveillance systems in near real-time monitoring of foodborne related illnesses.”
The researchers gathered 5,824 Yelp-user reviews of restaurants surrounding 29 colleges between 2005 and 2012. The reviews were then analyzed for information related to foodborne illness and then compared with outbreak reports from the CDC. The researchers broke review data down into the food groups implicated in reports of foodborne illness, including aquatic, dairy and eggs, fruits and nuts, meat and poultry, and vegetables.
Study results showed that social media reporting of foodborne illness was very similar to CDC reporting. Aquatic foods were implicated in 16% of Yelp reports vs. 12% of CDC reports; dairy and eggs made up 23% of Yelp reports vs. 23% of CDC reports; fruits and nuts made up 7% of Yelp reports vs. 7% of CDC reports; meat and poultry made up 32% of Yelp reports vs. 33% of CDC reports; and vegetables made up 22% of Yelp reports vs. 25% of CDC reports.
Based on the accuracy of Yelp reports compared with the CDC data, the researchers stated that this method could be used for tracking foodborne illness in real time. Specifically, social media could assist with identifying which specific foods and restaurants are the major contributors to a particular outbreak.
The researchers also noted that because of the global capabilities of the Internet, sites like Yelp and Twitter could assist with the global effort to track and respond to foodborne illness.
“Foodborne diseases are a global issue with outbreaks sometimes spanning multiple countries,” Nsoesie and colleagues wrote. “We could therefore use a similar approach to assess and study trends and foods implicated in foodborne disease reports in other countries.” – by David Costill
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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