Posts on Facebook could reveal status of your health

FACEBOOK posts can be used to identify anxiety, depression and psychosis, research suggests.

Analysing the language in Facebook posts from around 1,000 test patients, researchers said it could be used to gain an insight into a person’s lifestyle choices and how they were feeling, which could also help with any potential treatment.

The study, by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Stony Brook University, suggests that analysing the content of posts to the social network could help spot signs of a range of conditions.

Dr Raina Merchant, the lead author, said: “This work is early, but our hope is that the insights gleaned from these posts could be used to better inform patients and providers about their health. As social media posts are often about someone’s lifestyle choices and experiences or how they’re feeling, this could provide additional information about disease management and exacerbation.”

The researchers used an automated data collection technique to analyse the entire Facebook posting history of those who agreed to take part and to share their data. Participants also agreed to have electronic medical records linked to their profiles.

The regular use of words such as “drink” or “bottle” could be used to predict alcohol abuse, while the use of hostile language was found to be an indicator of drug abuse and psychoses.

It follows a previous study carried out last year by some of the same team, which suggested that social media posts could help predict a diagnosis of depression.