ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Social media channels such as Twitter are gaining increasing acceptance as mechanisms for instantaneous scientific dialogue. Professional medical societies such as ASCO are using social media to expand the reach of scientific communications at and around their scientific meetings. This article examines the how Twitter use by oncologists expanded at the ASCO Annual Meetings from 2010 to 2011. METHODS: In both years, tweets that were specifically generated by physicians and that incorporated the official meeting hashtag were harvested from the public domain, and a discourse analysis was performed by three independent raters. Follow-up surveys were conducted to assess physician attitudes toward Twitter and its potential role in clinical practice. RESULTS: A combined total of 12,644 tweets were analyzed for 2010 and 2011. Although the number of physicians authoring tweets was small (14 in 2010, 34 in 2011), this group generated nearly 29% of the total meeting dialogue examined in this analysis in 2010 and 23% in 2011. Physicians used Twitter for reporting clinical news from scientific sessions, for discussions of treatment issues, for promotion, and to provide social commentary. The tangible impact of Twitter discussions on clinical practice remains unclear. CONCLUSION: Despite the 140-character limit, Twitter was successfully used by physicians at the 2010 and 2011 ASCO Annual Meetings to engage in clinical discussions, whether or not an author was on site as a live attendee. Twitter usage grew significantly from 2010 to 2011. Professional societies should monitor these phenomena to enhance annual meeting attendee user experience.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To examine the associations of maternal diabetes, overall and stratified according to treatment of diabetes, with weight-related outcomes at the time of military conscription, at age 18-20 years. DESIGN AND SETTING: Cohort study of 277 Danish male offspring of mothers with recognized pre-gestational or gestational diabetes. As population-based controls we selected 870 men matched from the Civil Registration Office. METHODS: Data on weight-related outcomes were retrieved from the Danish military conscription registry. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Military rejection due to adiposity and body mass index (BMI) at conscription. RESULTS: Army rejection rate due to adiposity was 5.8% (n= 16) among 277 diabetes mellitus-exposed men compared with 3.1% (n= 27) in 870 controls (risk difference 2.7 (95% confidence interval (CI) -0.3-5.7)) and mean BMI at conscription was 1.4 kg/m(2) (95%CI 0.8-2.0) higher among those diabetes mellitus-exposed men. In analyses adjusted for birthweight and gestational age, compared with controls, the BMI was 0.6 kg/m(2) (95%CI -0.3-1.5) higher in sons of mothers with pre-gestational and 2.7 kg/m(2) (95% (CI): 0.9-4.5) higher with gestational diabetes. The greatest BMI difference was in offspring of mothers with gestational diabetes in whom insulin was initiated during pregnancy. We found no difference in conscript height. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with controls, male offspring of women with diabetes had a higher rejection rate due to adiposity and higher adult BMI. Subgroup analyses showed that the association was most pronounced in sons of mothers with gestational diabetes, whereas pre-gestational diabetes was only weakly associated with higher offspring BMI.
