TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kang-Auger, Sarit
AU  - Lewin, Antoine
AU  - Ayoub, Aimina
AU  - Bilodeau-Bertrand, Marianne
AU  - Marcoux, Sophie
AU  - Auger, Nathalie
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/9/25
TI  - Social Media and Selfie-Related Mortality Amid COVID-19: Interrupted Time Series Analysis
JO  - JMIR Form Res
SP  - e42857
VL  - 7
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - injury
KW  - mortality
KW  - mortality rate
KW  - web-based news
KW  - selfie
KW  - social media
KW  - time series regression
AB  - Background: COVID-19 had a considerable impact on mortality, but its effect on behaviors associated with social media remains unclear. As travel decreased due to lockdowns during the pandemic, selfie-related mortality may have decreased, as fewer individuals were taking smartphone photographs in risky locations. Objective: In this study, we examined the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on trends in selfie-related mortality. Methods: We identified fatal selfie-related injuries reported in web-based news reports worldwide between March 2014 and April 2021, including the deaths of individuals attempting a selfie photograph or anyone else present during the incident. The main outcome measure was the total number of selfie-related deaths per month. We used interrupted time series regression to estimate the monthly change in the number of selfie-related deaths over time, comparing the period before the pandemic (March 2014 to February 2020) with the period during the pandemic (March 2020 to April 2021). Results: The study included a total of 332 selfie-related deaths occurring between March 2014 and April 2021, with 18 (5.4%) deaths during the pandemic. Most selfie-related deaths occurred in India (n=153, 46.1%) and involved men (n=221, 66.6%) and young individuals (n=296, 89.2%). During the pandemic, two-thirds of selfie-related deaths were due to falls, whereas a greater proportion of selfie-related deaths before the pandemic were due to drowning. Based on interrupted time series regression, there was an average of 1.3 selfie-related deaths per month during the pandemic, compared with 4.3 deaths per month before the pandemic. The number of selfie-related deaths decreased by 2.6 in the first month of the pandemic alone and continued to decrease thereafter. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic led to a marked decrease in selfie-related mortality, suggesting that lockdowns and travel restrictions likely prevented hazardous selfie-taking. The decrease in selfie-related mortality occurred despite a potential increase in social media use during the pandemic. 
SN  - 2561-326X
UR  - https://formative.jmir.org/2023/1/e42857
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/42857
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37747765
DO  - 10.2196/42857
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/42857
ER  -