Did you hear the one about the doctor?

An examination of doctor jokes on Facebook

2014-02-24

(Press-News.org) LEBANON, NH (Feb. 24, 2014) – In a study that demonstrates the potential of using social networking sites for research on health and medicine, Dartmouth researchers studied jokes made about doctors posted on Facebook.

"Social networking sites, such as Facebook, have become immensely popular in recent years and present a unique opportunity for researchers to eavesdrop on the collective conversation of current societal issues," said Matthew Davis of The Dartmouth Institute of Health Policy & Clinical Practice.

In one of the first studies of social networking site conversations pertaining to health and medicine, Davis and colleagues examined the prevalence and success of doctor jokes posted on Facebook. The study is published in the February edition of the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

The researchers studied more than 33,000 Facebook users, who gave permission to have everything on their Facebook wall monitored, and identified 263 (0.79%) Facebook users who posted a joke that referenced doctors during a six-month observation period.

Davis and colleagues studied the characteristics of 156 unique doctor jokes that were associated with getting an "electronic laugh (e.g., a LOL, ROTFL) from the social network and the number of Facebook "likes" jokes received. Jokes in which the doctor (or the healthcare system) was the butt of the joke tended to be more successful, although the association was not statistically significant. Ironically, the joke in the study that received the greatest number of Facebook likes was a "doctor, lawyer, priest joke" in which the lawyer was the butt of the joke.

In recent years, the researchers said, there is a growing interest in social networking sites to employ health interventions and to identify certain health behaviors. To date, there have been few empirical studies in the biomedical literature that examined conversations on social networking sites in non-patient population groups. "While our study took a lighthearted look at the world of doctor-related humor, our work does demonstrate the potential of using social networking sites for research on health and medicine," Davis said.

INFORMATION: The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice was founded in 1988 by Dr. John E. Wennberg as the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences (CECS). Among its 25 years of accomplishments, it has established a new discipline and educational focus in the Evaluative Clinical Sciences, introduced and advanced the concept of shared decision-making for patients, demonstrated unwarranted variation in the practice and outcomes of medical treatment, developed the first comprehensive examination of US health care variations (The Dartmouth Atlas), and has shown that more health care is not necessarily better care.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Exclusive David Gancberg article in Human Gene Therapy

2014-02-24

New Rochelle, NY, February 24, 2014—Over the past three funding stages, the European Commission has invested nearly $475 million in 100 projects in the gene transfer and gene therapy field. David Gancberg, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission (Brussels), describes the substantial opportunities for funding to support basic and clinical research in gene and cell therapy to find new treatments for chronic and rare diseases and novel regenerative medicine approaches in a Commentary article in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary ...

Volcanoes contribute to recent warming 'hiatus'

2014-02-24

LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Volcanic eruptions in the early part of the 21st century have cooled the planet, according to a study led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This cooling partly offset the warming produced by greenhouse gases. Despite continuing increases in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases, and in the total heat content of the ocean, global-mean temperatures at the surface of the planet and in the troposphere (the lowest portion of the Earth's atmosphere) have shown relatively little warming since 1998. This so-called 'slow-down' or 'hiatus' has received ...

Personalized medicine best way to treat cancer, study argues

2014-02-24

If a driver is traveling to New York City, I-95 might be their route of choice. But they could also take I-78, I-87 or any number of alternate routes. Most cancers begin similarly, with many possible routes to the same disease. A new study found evidence that assessing the route to cancer on a case-by-case basis might make more sense than basing a patient's cancer treatment on commonly disrupted genes and pathways. The study found little or no overlap in the most prominent genetic malfunction associated with each individual patient's disease compared to malfunctions ...

On the road to Mottronics

2014-02-24

"Mottronics" is a term seemingly destined to become familiar to aficionados of electronic gadgets. Named for the Nobel laureate Nevill Francis Mott, Mottronics involve materials – mostly metal oxides - that can be induced to transition between electrically conductive and insulating phases. If these phase transitions can be controlled, Mott materials hold great promise for future transistors and memories that feature higher energy efficiencies and faster switching speeds than today's devices. A team of researchers working at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS) have ...

New ideas change your brain cells: UBC research

2014-02-24

A new University of British Columbia study identifies an important molecular change that occurs in the brain when we learn and remember. Published this month in Nature Neuroscience, the research shows that learning stimulates our brain cells in a manner that causes a small fatty acid to attach to delta-catenin, a protein in the brain. This biochemical modification is essential in producing the changes in brain cell connectivity associated with learning, the study finds. In animal models, the scientists found almost twice the amount of modified delta-catenin in the brain ...

Bushfires continue to plague Victoria, Australia

2014-02-24

Reports coming from Australia are more positive than negative now with regards to the Morwell fire, but officials say they still have a "long way to go." Considerable progress has been made in extinguishing the fire, but there is still significant heat that continues to generate smoke from the open mine. Fire activity has been cut in half since February 11, but there are still "weeks of firefighting ahead" according to Craig Lapsley, Fire Services Commissioner on the County Fire Authority website. According to the Australian News, "The [Morwell] fire, which started ...

Study of Hispanic/Latino health presents initial findings

2014-02-24

February 24, 2014 – (BRONX, NY) –One in every six people in the U.S. is Hispanic/Latino and as a group they live longer than non-Hispanic whites (81.4 years vs. 78.8 years). Yet, despite their strong representation and relative longevity, little is understood about this group's health conditions and behaviors. The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL), the landmark research study of Hispanic/Latino health funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has released initial findings that show significant variations in disease prevalence and health ...

Researcher builds a better job performance review

2014-02-24

MANHATTAN -- A critical job performance evaluation can have a negative effect on any employee, a Kansas State University researcher has found. By studying how people view positive or negative feedback, Satoris Culbertson, assistant professor of management, has determined that nobody -- even people who are motivated to learn -- likes negative performance reviews. Culbertson is developing ways to help managers improve the process for reviewing employees. Culbertson and collaborators at Eastern Kentucky University and Texas A&M University surveyed more than 200 staffers ...

Now it will become cheaper to make second-generation biofuel for our cars

2014-02-24

Producing second-generation biofuel from dead plant tissue is environmetally friendly - but it is also expensive because the process as used today needs expensive enzymes, and large companies dominate this market. Now a Danish/Iraqi collaboration presents a new technique that avoids the expensive enzymes. The production of second generation biofuels thus becomes cheaper, probably attracting many more producers and competition, and this may finally bring the price down. The world's need for fuel will persist, also when the Earth's deposits of fossil fuels run out. Bioethanol, ...

Biomedical bleeding affects horseshoe crab behavior

2014-02-24

DURHAM, N.H. – New research from Plymouth State University and the University of New Hampshire indicates that collecting and bleeding horseshoe crabs for biomedical purposes causes short-term changes in their behavior and physiology that could exacerbate the crabs' population decline in parts of the east coast. Each year, the U.S. biomedical industry harvests the blue blood from almost half a million living horseshoe crabs for use in pharmaceuticals — most notably, a product called Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL), used to ensure vaccines and medical equipment are free ...

Did you hear the one about the doctor?

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: