Using geospatial social media data for infectious disease studies: a systematic review.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Geospatial Science

Background:

• Geospatial social media (GSM) data provides rich, timely, and accessible spatial information valuable for public health, especially in infectious disease research.
• The use of GSM data in infectious disease studies has grown significantly, covering diverse disease types and spatial scales.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize research utilizing GSM data in infectious disease studies.
• To categorize applications of GSM data into surveillance, explanation, and prediction domains.
• To identify knowledge gaps and propose future research directions.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of 86 research articles published between December 2013 and March 2022.
• Categorization of studies based on infectious disease type, spatial level, and research domain (surveillance, explanation, prediction).
• Analysis of the application of advanced statistical and spatial methods in GSM data research.

Main Results:

• GSM data is widely applied in infectious disease surveillance and explanation, with less focus on prediction.
• Studies covered 12 infectious disease types across neighborhood to country spatial levels.
• Four key knowledge gaps were identified: contextual information use, application scopes, spatiotemporal dimension, and data limitations.

Conclusions:

• GSM data is a powerful tool for infectious disease research, particularly for surveillance and understanding disease dynamics.
• Addressing identified knowledge gaps, such as improving contextual information use and overcoming data limitations, is crucial for advancing the field.
• Future research should explore broader application scopes and enhance the spatiotemporal analysis of GSM data for more effective public health interventions.