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World J Cardiol. Oct 26, 2017; 9(10): 794-795
Published online Oct 26, 2017. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v9.i10.794
Mining twitter to understand the smoking cessation barriers
Chayakrit Krittanawong, Zhen Wang
Chayakrit Krittanawong, Department of Internal Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s and Mount Sinai West, New York, NY 10023, United States
Chayakrit Krittanawong, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Heart and Vascular Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, United States
Zhen Wang, Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, United States
Zhen Wang, Division of Health Care Policy and Research, Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, United States
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Chayakrit Krittanawong, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s and Mount Sinai West, 1000 10th Ave, New York, NY 10023, United States. chayakrit.krittanawong@mountsinai.org
Telephone: +1-212-5234000 Fax: +1-212-5238605
Received: April 10, 2017
Peer-review started: April 12, 2017
First decision: May 9, 2017
Revised: June 2, 2017
Accepted: June 19, 2017
Article in press: June 20, 2017
Published online: October 26, 2017
Processing time: 197 Days and 23.7 Hours
Abstract

Smoking cessation is challenging and lack of positive support is a known major barrier to quitting cigarettes. Previous studies have suggested that social influences might increase smokers’ awareness of social norms for appropriate behavior, which might lead to smoking cessation. Although social media use is increasing among young adults in the United States, research on the relationship between social media use and smoking cessation is lacking. Twitter has provided a rich source of information for researchers, but no overview exists as to how the field uses Twitter in smoking cessation research. To the best of our knowledge, this study conducted a data mining analysis of Twitter to assess barriers to smoking cessation. In conclusion, Twitter is a cost-effective tool with the potential to disseminate information on the benefits of smoking cessation and updated research to the Twitter community on a global scale.

Keywords: Smoking cessation; Stop smoking; Smoking; Twitter; Tweets

Core tip: Twitter use is increasing globally, research on the relationship between Twitter use and smoking cessation is lacking. This study is to the best of our knowledge the first Twitter analytic study of smoking cessation. Twitter is a cost-effective tool with the potential to disseminate information on the benefits of smoking cessation and updated research to the Twitter community on a global scale. Digital health interventions through Twitter that educate the health community are still needed.