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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Digital Public Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1413556

Is Global Health Truly Global? -A Hashtag Analysis of #GlobalHealth Disparities on X

Provisionally accepted
Zara Arshad Zara Arshad 1Pranav Sharma Pranav Sharma 1Shweta Sharma Shweta Sharma 1Mustafa Sajjad Cheema Mustafa Sajjad Cheema 1Charu Agarwal Charu Agarwal 1Tamara Tango Tamara Tango 1Farhan Bin Matin Farhan Bin Matin 2Atanas G. Atanasov Atanas G. Atanasov 3,4*Bodrun Naher Siddiquea Bodrun Naher Siddiquea 5Maima Matin Maima Matin 4Olga Adamska Olga Adamska 6Artur Stolarczyk Artur Stolarczyk 7Rahul Kashyap Rahul Kashyap 1Faisal A Nawaz Faisal A Nawaz 1
  • 1 Independent researcher, St. Paul, MN, United States
  • 2 East West University, Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • 3 Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  • 4 Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Masovian, Poland
  • 5 Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  • 6 Cardinal Stefan WyszyƄski University, Warsaw, Masovian, Poland
  • 7 Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Masovian, Poland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: X (Formerly known as Twitter) healthcare hashtags are a popular healthcare informatics and educational tool among medical professionals. #Globalhealth is one such widely used hashtag with extensive engagement. This study analyses #GlobalHealth to understand its pattern, global digital distribution, and other parameters during the COVID-19 pandemic on X.Methods: Data was collected by utilizing posts using #GlobalHealth on X from 1st December 2019 to 1st November 2022. The analysis was performed using Symplur Signals to assess several parameters, such as the cumulative number of posts, impressions, category of users, co-occurring hashtags, and geolocation. The Symplur Rank system was used to assess the impact of influencers using the hashtag.Results: A total of 843,762 posts were shared by 150,408 X users, with 4,639,144,304 impressions. Most posts (73.8%) were made by unclassified accounts, followed by doctors (4.2%), followed by other health workers. The #COVID19 was the most common cooccurring hashtag (43%). The top locations and the most influential X users came from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Among the top 25 most influential handles, a maximum (N=09) were based in the United States-most profiles (N=10) were categorized as international organizations followed by journals (N=03).The study gives a glimpse into the discrepancies in global distribution and stakeholders of #GlobalHealth. Most posts originated from the global north, which hints at how the trend to #GlobalHealth is not perhaps as global as it is thought to be, and it also reflects upon the real-world scenarios in the context of Global Health Equity. Thus, deeper and wider studies on this digital discrepancy may add more to the existing discourse on the topic.

    Keywords: global health, global health equity, Global Health Discrepancy, hashtag, x, Twitter social media

    Received: 07 Apr 2024; Accepted: 18 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Arshad, Sharma, Sharma, Cheema, Agarwal, Tango, Bin Matin, Atanasov, Siddiquea, Matin, Adamska, Stolarczyk, Kashyap and Nawaz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Atanas G. Atanasov, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.