Public health and social media: A study of Zika virus‐related posts on Yahoo! Answers

Abstract

This study investigates the content of questions and responses about the Zika virus on Yahoo! Answers as a recent example of how public concerns regarding an international health issue are reflected in social media. We investigate the contents of posts about the Zika virus on Yahoo! Answers, identify and reveal subject patterns about the Zika virus, and analyze the temporal changes of the revealed subject topics over 4 defined periods of the Zika virus outbreak. Multidimensional scaling analysis, temporal analysis, and inferential statistical analysis approaches were used in the study. A resulting 2‐layer Zika virus schema, and term connections and relationships are presented. The results indicate that consumers’ concerns changed over the 4 defined periods. Consumers paid more attention to the basic information about the Zika virus, and the prevention and protection from the Zika virus at the beginning of the outbreak of the Zika virus. During the later periods, consumers became more interested in the role that the government and health organizations played in the public health emergency.