How Social Media Can Be a Health Risk Assessment Tool
QHHL 
Nov 08 2018
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0 QHHL
Depression is a serious health risk for a lot of people. Now, researchers are looking into a new way to assess this problem using social media.
People use social media all the time to interact with others and stay connected with the world. Because it’s so popular, researchers are now considering a new use for all this information. Over social media, people share information about everything, including health details. And now, this information may prove useful as a health risk assessment tool, particularly when it comes to depression.
Depression is fast becoming one of the most common mental illnesses in the world. It’s different from normal distress, which occurs as a result of outside events. Depression can occur anytime and can have a devastating effect on your quality of life. There are said to be over 332 million people worldwide with depression, and it doesn’t just affect sufferers’ moods. People with depression are more likely to indulge in risky behaviours such as smoking, drinking or taking illicit drugs. This takes a heavy toll on your health and is an obvious health risk factor for other illnesses and problems.
Depressed people are also less likely to take care of themselves physically, mentally and emotionally. When you’re depressed, it’s often too difficult to exercise, eat correctly, or monitor your health. And this can cause other illnesses, or cover up the early signs of disease.
Diagnosis is a serious problem when it comes to depression. Some people see it as a sign of weakness and cover up their symptoms. Others might feel ashamed and as if they should just ‘get over it’. Unfortunately, this can cause even more problems. Depression is a serious mental illness and health risk and anyone suffering from it needs professional help and support. Ignoring or covering up the symptoms just results in more suffering and can even result in death. That’s why screening your moods as part of your health risk assessment is so vital. Because early diagnosis is key to getting the help and support you need to recover.
A new study has suggested that social media may be a viable way to predict depression. The researchers got permission to access the Facebook posts of 1,200 users as well as their medical records. Out of these participants, only 114 had a history of depression. 5 controls were matched to every participant with a history of depression. Then the status updates of all the participants were fed into a new algorithm. These status updates came from the years leading up to the depression diagnosis and for a similar period of time for the control group participants.
From this information, the researchers were able to determine language markers that were associated with depression. These indicated emotional and cognitive cues such as negative emotions and destructive thinking patterns. The use of these markers in the depression group were then compared with the control group.
The researchers found that they could predict depression up to three months before diagnosis using these markers. And the accuracy of these predictions was significant enough to make further research important. This means that the data could offer important information on health risk assessment. Diagnosing depression isn’t easy at the moment. But if the results of this study are repeated in the future, social media could become an important part of caring for people with depression.
This study is very important for anyone who’s concerned about their mental and emotional health. Using similar algorithms to evaluate mental health could become an important part of health risk assessment activities. This approach has a number of benefits. To start with, it’s relatively easy to do. There are no invasive tests and you don’t actually have to do anything but give your doctor access to your social media posts. It can also be used anytime, anywhere. And because most people are active on social media these days, there is a lot of data to work with.
These results could also change the way you do health risk assessment activities at home. At some point, these types of algorithms could become a part of health risk assessment apps. This would allow you to evaluate your mental health at home and take the information to your doctor for a more accurate diagnosis. But this is far in the future. Until technology catches up, it’s still possible to get a rough estimate of your mental health by evaluating the language you use on social media. And if you notice an increase in language that indicates a problem, you need to take steps to address it as soon as possible.
If you’re concerned about a health risk, try using HomeLab to keep track of your condition and any preventative measures you take. And if you see signs of a significant problem, you should check with your doctor as soon as possible.
Tags: health risk, health risk assessment, depression