Ninth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Although accounting for 13% of the American population, in 2017, African-Americans made up 44% and 46.8% of newly reported HIV and AIDS cases in the US respectively. Racial disparities in HIV/AIDS are a complex consequence of contextual, socio-economic, and cultural factors that act as barriers to the prevention and care continuum. Today, social media are being increasingly integrated into HIV prevention and care initiatives aimed at reaching populations most affected. Considering its popularity among African-American internet users, the social media platform Twitter has the potential to foster two-way discussion, information exchange, and community building around HIV/AIDS for people of color – an underexplored dynamic. Through mixed-methods, the present study maps the connections and exchanges within the African-American HIV/AIDS Twitter network. Online snowball sampling was used to identify a network of Tweeters with a joint interest in HIV/AIDS in the African-American community. Coding of network members profiles biography data reveal a diversity of healthcare roles from practitioners and sexual health educators to advocacy organizations and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Social network analysis was used to map comradery (who follows who) and discussions (who tweets who) of the network. Additionally, the tweets, replies, and retweets of the network actors were collected over a 6-month period for content analysis so as to provide insight into the context and common themes of the discussions over time. A preliminary overview of this data will be presented. Findings from the study will help better align Twitter-based health education and promotion strategies tailored towards African-Americans.