https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdx020

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Systematic Review of Surveillance by Social Media Platforms for Illicit Drug Use

Document Type

Article

Subject Area(s)

Adolescent; Adult; Drug Utilization; Female; Humans; Illicit Drugs; Male; Peptide Fragments; Population Surveillance (methods); Prescription Drugs; Social Media; Social Networking; Substance-Related Disorders (diagnosis); Young Adult

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The use of social media (SM) as a surveillance tool of global illicit drug use is limited. To address this limitation, a systematic review of literature focused on the ability of SM to better recognize illicit drug use trends was addressed. METHODS: A search was conducted in databases: PubMed, CINAHL via Ebsco, PsychINFO via Ebsco, Medline via Ebsco, ERIC, Cochrane Library, Science Direct, ABI/INFORM Complete and Communication and Mass Media Complete. Included studies were original research published in peer-reviewed journals between January 2005 and June 2015 that primarily focused on collecting data from SM platforms to track trends in illicit drug use. Excluded were studies focused on purchasing prescription drugs from illicit online pharmacies. RESULTS: Selected studies used a range of SM tools/applications, including message boards, Twitter and blog/forums/platform discussions. Limitations included relevance, a lack of standardized surveillance systems and a lack of efficient algorithms to isolate relevant items. CONCLUSION: Illicit drug use is a worldwide problem, and the rise of global social networking sites has led to the evolution of a readily accessible surveillance tool. Systematic approaches need to be developed to efficiently extract and analyze illicit drug content from social networks to supplement effective prevention programs.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdx020

APA Citation

Kazemi, D. M., Borsari, B., Levine, M. J., & Dooley, B. (2017). Systematic review of surveillance by social media platforms for illicit drug use. Journal of Public Health, 39(4), 763–776. https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdx020

Rights

© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

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