Using social media to estimate Zika's impact on tourism: #babymoon, 2014-2017

PLoS One. 2019 Feb 21;14(2):e0212507. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212507. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause microcephaly and other birth defects. We hypothesized that the Latin America Zika epidemic resulted in pregnant women and their partners adopting behavioral changes to limit risk, leading them to forego travel to Zika-affected locations. We evaluated this hypothesis by studying travelers' intent and behavior through Twitter data related to babymoon: a holiday taken by parents-to-be before their baby is born. We found the odds of mentioning representative Zika-affected locations in #babymoon tweets dropped significantly (Odds ratio: 0.29, 95% CI: 0.20-0.40) after the Zika-microcephaly association became well-known. This result was further corroborated through a content analysis of #babymoon tweets mentioning Zika-affected locations, which identified if the Twitter user was physically present in the Zika-affected locations. Conversely, we found a small but statistically insignificant increase in the odds of mentioning Zika-free locations from #babymoon tweets (Odds Ratio: 1.11, 95% CI: 0.97-1.27) after the Zika-microcephaly association became well-known.

MeSH terms

  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Latin America / epidemiology
  • Male
  • Microcephaly / epidemiology
  • Microcephaly / prevention & control
  • Pregnancy
  • Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / epidemiology*
  • Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / prevention & control
  • Risk Reduction Behavior
  • Social Media*
  • Travel* / statistics & numerical data
  • Zika Virus Infection / complications*
  • Zika Virus Infection / epidemiology*
  • Zika Virus Infection / prevention & control

Grants and funding

All authors (M.G., B.O, N.M.) are employees of Metabiota. The funder provided support in the form of salaries for authors M.G., B.O., N.M., but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.