This paper presentation was delivered at the Second International ACM SIGSPATIAL Workshop on HealthGIS (HealthGIS'13) in Orlando, Florida, USA (5/11/2013). This research explores perceived user satisfaction and the impact of students using Mobile Wireless Communication Technology (MWCT) and Social Media tools (SM) for accessing health information. It was specifically concerned with whether there was a spatial pattern based on students’ location or other social characteristics. An online survey was designed and utilised to collect quantitative, qualitative and spatial data. This study is unique, as it provides multi-dimensional empirical evidence (i.e., quantitative, qualitative, and spatial evidence) that underlies and complements each other. Our findings indicate that there is some evidence of a pattern as to who uses these tools more extensively for accessing health information. For example, families with kids, people who live with partners etc. Proximity to campus was not found to be correlated, and no spatial structure was found in relation to the question: Who used or did not use MWCT to access health information? Therefore, this paper argues for the inclusion and expansion of health information utilising MWCT and SM tools amongst students, which, in turn, complements traditional methods to accessing health information. The study uses a multi-dimensional approach in obtaining empirical evidence. Utilising quantitative, qualitative, and spatial analysis, our analysis instruments are interweaved and complement each other. This also provides unique robustness to this study because of the variety of evidence provided. Potentially, the findings of this paper can be used by other organisations to promote the development of new approaches and the development of online tools to encourage the access of health information by university students. This, in turn, may play a positive role in their health status. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.

1. A Multi-Dimensional Approach to
Measure the Use of Social Media
Tools in Accessing Health
Information: A Case Study of Griffith
University Students, Queensland,
Australia
Presenters:
Dr Ori Gudes and Dr Wayne Usher
1

2. Study Aims
• To identify the socio-economical profile of a university students
who use Mobile Wireless Communication Technology
(MWCT) to access health information, and why;
• To explore if the use of MWCT leads to a behavioural change either positively or negatively;
• To develop new tools that will enable the analysis and
visualisation of qualitative data and GIS findings; and
• To explore spatial patterns or spatial structure in the use of
MWCT tools to access health information.
2

3. Literature review what does it tell us?
• There is increasing evidence in the literature about the growing use of
MWCT among students especially when connecting to health
information (Head & Eisenberg ,2011);
• Young adults are closely linked to MWCT as a way of communication
(Seeman, 2008);
• Previous research has focused on Australian secondary schools for
promoting better mental health, rather than in the universities sector
(Higher Education report, 2011); and
• University students demonstrate higher mental health issues when
compared to the general population (Stallman, 2010).
3

4. Literature review, previous studies of
qualitative and spatial analysis methods
Some previous studies about the use of qualitative analysis and GIS /
spatial analysis conducted by the following key authors:
•
•
•
•
Jung and Elwood (2010);
Kwan (2010);
Cope and Elwood (2009); and
Kniggeô and Cope (2006, 2009) – the grounded visualization approach
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5. Geotagged qualitative data:
• Audio notes
• Video clips
• Field notes
Source: Kniggeô and Cope (2006)
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6. Research problem and gap in the
knowledge
• There is a growing evidence
about the importance of MWCT.
However, there is lack of
understanding about the role of it,
as a platform for accessing health
information;
• There is also lack of studies that
use a multi-dimensional
approaches to obtain evidence in
this field;
• A gap in the knowledge
especially when using qualitative
analysis and spatial analysis /
GIS has been identified
6

7. A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Measure
the Use of Social Media Tools in Accessing
Health
Quantitative
Most previous
studies focused on
visualisation using
one “directionality”
A gap in the
knowledge
especially when
using qualitative
analysis and
spatial analysis /
GIS has been
identified
analysis
dimension
Potential to develop
cross methods (e.g.,
analysis tools) and
not just
visualisation
solutions
Distribution
Qualitative analysis
Spatial analysis
dimension
dimension
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8. Methodology
• Quantitative – Survey and quantitative analysis using SPSS;
• Qualitative: Leximancer tool was utilised; some of the text analysis
was differentiated by location as result of spatial data quires
undertaken on the textual database; and
• Spatial analysis; to identify any patterns that were associated
with location, spatial analysis methods such as clustering analysis
were utilised using ArcGIS and SatScan tools. All data has been
geocoded and used in ArcGIS and SatScan.
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9. Quantitative
Analysis
Dimension
Findings
The number and percentage of students who use
MWCT to access health information was:
Frequency
Precent
Yes
463
66.5%
No
231
33.2%
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10. Quantitative
Analysis
Dimension
A demographic profile
Of the people who used MWCT to access health
information, we found that the typical socio
economic profile associated with the following:
• Born in Australia;
• live with other partners or kids;
• Speak English at home; and
• Average age of 30.5
10

11. A demographic profile
cont.
Quantitative
Analysis
Dimension
From the people who used MWCT to access
health information:
•
76% reported as being in good, very good
excellent or health status;
•
37% were having BMI considered to be
overweight, or obese class 1-2; and
•
5% reported as being in poor health status;
•
More than 69% have reported about positive
change in their health behaviours;
•
67.9% indicated that they used Facebook and
Instagram for accessing or sharing health
information;
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12. Qualitative
Analysis
Dimension
Why qualitative analysis?
This type of analysis revealed the themes or concepts that were frequently used by the
survey participants. the closer the themes or the concepts the better it interweaves.
Furthermore, the brightness of a concept‘s label reflects its frequency in the text.
That is, the brighter the concept label, the more often the concept is coded in the
text.
Text output from
Text Input into Leximancer
Leximancer
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13. Qualitative
Analysis
Dimension
Major themes:
Access to information,
remedies, healthy
eating, nutrition, diet
and symptoms.
Reasons for using MWCT to
Access information about
health?
“It is easy to find
information about
symptoms because I
think I might have
depression so I like to
find people out there
with similar problems
and talk to them, it
makes me feel less
alone”
13

14. Quantitative
Analysis
Dimension
Major themes:
• Reliable (information)
• Trust
• Professional doctor
preference
Reasons of not using
MWCT to access
information about health?
your health?
“I think I'm more
likely to get
reliable advice
from a proper
medical
practitioner, rather
than Dr Google.”
14

15. Qualitative
Analysis
Dimension
Top 3 positive behavioral
changes from MWCT usage
Major themes:
•
•
•
•
Healthy eating
Diet
Better motivation
More knowledge
about health and
physical exercise.
“Healthier food
choices. Better
exercise
techniques increased
motivation to
maintain healthy
changes.”
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16. Spatial
Analysis
Dimension
Location of students based on
vehicle travel time
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17. Spatial
Analysis
Dimension
Who used MWCT and did
not use, and where?
Essentially, these maps
tells the same story that it
could be observed that
both measures of using
MWCT are clustered in the
same areas. This was to be
expected (due to the
nature of our survey
sample);
We also used the Bernoulli
Model in SatScan, which
found no spatial structure
irrespective of the survey
sample nature.
17

18. A preliminary example of a unique visualisation using the
integration of Leximancer and spatial analysis /GIS
•
•
1.
2.
3.
Thematic
regionalisation
(clustering of
themes)
We may answer
questions such
as:
whether people
are thematically
similar or desimilar?
Where some
specific themes
are clustered?
Change of
themes in a spatio
temporal manner
etc.
18

19. Areas of influence / development of qual
analysis and spatial analysis
Data collection
• Integration of qualitative data with GIS datasets;
Representations / visualisation
• Establishing new type of representations and/or visualisation
methods between GIS and the qualitative analysis dimension;
Analysis
• Developing new techniques of analysis that are emerging at the link
between qualitative research and GIS / spatial analysis;
• Increasing data exploration capacity; and
• Demonstrating how qualitative GIS can be used to interrogate data.
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20. Conclusion
• The information and knowledge generated from this study has
opened a window through which we can view and determine how
Australian University students use MWCT;
• Evidence from this study could go towards guiding University Student
Services as to how to effectively implement e-health initiatives that
could contribute to reducing health inequities amongst Australia’s
University students.
• Our conceptual framework may be adopted by researchers working
across the geographical information discipline and human Geography;
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21. Conclusion cont.
• A gap in the knowledge especially when using qualitative analysis and
spatial analysis / GIS has been identified, but this also provided an
opportunity to develop unique, new and innovative methods of
analysis and visualisation solutions; and
• Using the analysis, extraction, and interrogation capabilities of
multiple dimensions to find evidence, can be valuable for exploring
new insights.
21

22. Limitations and recommendations
for future studies
As this is an ongoing study, which suppose to be extended, some
limitations and recommendations for future actions have been
suggested:
• Extend the survey to the general public;
• Obtain better location data from participants (e.g., add journeys of
participants);
• Expand the analysis to other measures which have not been covered
in this study but were included in the survey (e.g., self-efficacy and
adoption of technology);
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23. Limitations and recommendations cont.
• Include data with time stamp, to better understand spatio temporal
trends of using MWCT;
• Explore the impact on health outcomes in the long term; and
• Develop new tools that will enable the analysis and visualisation of
qualitative data in GIS.
23

24. Acknowledgments
- Population & Social Health Research Program for their funding of this study;
- Dr Stephen Ball (Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Centre for Child
Health Research, The University of Western Australia)
- Dr Simon Moncrif – School of Spatial Sciences, Curtin University, WA, Australia
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