It’s not all about autism: The emerging landscape of anti-vaccination sentiment on Facebook

• Published in: Vaccine 2019-04, Vol.37 (16), p.2216-2223
• Main Authors: Hoffman, Beth L., Felter, Elizabeth M., Chu, Kar-Hai, Shensa, Ariel, Hermann, Chad, Wolynn, Todd, Williams, Daria, Primack, Brian A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Aluminum; Anti-vaccination; Autism; Babies; Cancer; Cell culture; Children & youth; Civil liberties; Coding; Conspiracy; Cures; Digital media; Facebook; False information; Fetuses; Health communication; Human papillomavirus; Marijuana; Measles; Medical personnel; Modularity; Network analysis; Pesticides; Poliomyelitis; Public health; Qualitative analysis; Signs and symptoms; Social media; Social network analysis; Social networks; Social organization; Vaccination; Vaccines; Yogurt
• ISSN: 0264-410X; 1873-2518
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.03.003

•Insight on individuals from Facebook profiles posting anti-vaccination content.•Social media facilitates anti-vaccination connections and organization.•Anti-vaccination posts on individual profile pages often skew risk perception.•People and topics cluster in sub-groups—trust, alternatives, safety, and conspiracy.•Anti-vaccination arguments are varied; need for targeted interventions. Due in part to declining vaccination rates, in 2018 over 20 states reported at least one case of measles, and over 40,000 cases were confirmed in Europe. Anti-vaccine posts on social media may be facilitating anti-vaccination behaviour. This study aimed to systematically characterize (1) individuals known to publicly post anti-vaccination content on Facebook, (2) the information they convey, and (3) the spread of this content. Our data set consisted of 197 individuals who posted anti-vaccination comments in response to a message promoting vaccination. We systematically analysed publicly-available content using quantitative coding, descriptive analysis, social network analysis, and an in-depth qualitative assessment. The final codebook consisted of 26 codes; Cohen’s κ ranged 0.71–1.0 after double-coding. The majority (89%) of individuals identified as female. Among 136 individuals who divulged their location, 36 states and 8 other countries were represented. In a 2-mode network of individuals and topics, modularity analysis revealed 4 distinct sub-groups labelled as “trust,” “alternatives,” “safety,” and “conspiracy.” For example, a comment representative of “conspiracy” is that poliovirus does not exist and that pesticides caused clinical symptoms of polio. An example from the “alternatives” sub-group is that eating yogurt cures human papillomavirus. Deeper qualitative analysis of all 197 individuals’ profiles found that these individuals also tended to post material against other health-related practices such as water fluoridation and circumcision. Social media outlets may facilitate anti-vaccination connections and organization by facilitating the diffusion of centuries old arguments and techniques. Arguments against vaccination are diverse but remain consistent within sub-groups of individuals. It would be valuable for health professionals to leverage social networks to deliver more effective, targeted messages to different constituencies.