A nimbler way to track alcohol use-by mining Twitter and Google searches
(PHYSorg.com Medicine & Health)

Collecting rigorous public health data through large survey-based studies is a slow, expensive process. New research from Boston Children`s Hospital shows that mining people`s alcohol-related tweets and online searches offers a more immediate, localized information source to complement traditional methods, offering public health professionals the opportunity to spot emerging trends and measure the effects of alcohol-related interventions. Findings appear December 2 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.