Vidya Lakshmi Purushothaman

University of California, San Diego | UCSD

Background The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which began in Wuhan, China in December 2019, is rapidly spreading worldwide with over 1.9 million cases as of mid-April 2020. Infoveillance approaches using social media can help characterize disease distribution and public knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors critical to the early stages of a...

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps the greatest global health challenge of the last century. Accompanying this pandemic is a parallel “infodemic”, including the online marketing and sale of unapproved, illegal and counterfeit COVID-19 health products, including testing kits, treatments, and other questionable “cures”. Enabling proliferatio...

Background The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is a global health emergency with over 6 million cases worldwide as of the beginning of June 2020. The pandemic is historic in scope and precedent given its emergence in an increasingly digital era. Importantly, there have been concerns about the accuracy of COVID-19 case counts due to issues s...

Introduction In 2019, the state of Massachusetts signed into law the first statewide sales restrictions of flavored ENDS/tobacco products for both physical and online shops in response to a previous executive order to curb E-Cigarette, or Vaping Product, Use Associated Lung Injury (EVALI) cases that were surging throughout the nation. Methodology...

Background: Cancer patients often face multiple comorbidities and are at risk for various mental health conditions and substance use disorders. Tobacco/nicotine dependence (TND) is a known risk factor for poor health outcomes and has been associated with psychiatric disorders including substance use disorder. However, the specific relationship betw...

Introduction: The debate over the legal status of many cannabis- and hemp-derived products, including delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is in question. Although low concentrations of delta-8 THC are legal at the Federal level, many states have implemented their own regulations to both allow and restrict its use and sale. Of concern, sellers with...

Introduction: The state of California has enacted progressive anti-tobacco policies, including Proposition 56 in 2016. In response, the alternative and emerging tobacco product (ATP) industry has increased its political activity. This study explores the association between the proportion of people voting against Proposition 56 and tobacco/ATP reta...

Background Access to tobacco products, including vape products, from local brick-and-mortar stores influences the exposure, uptake, and use of these products in local communities. Methods Licensed tobacco retailers in California were classified as specialized tobacco/vape stores or non-specialized stores by obtaining categories published on Yelp....

Introduction: Tobacco retailer density may be associated with greater youth initiation and reduced success during quit attempts; however, the extent to which tobacco retailer density has changed overtime across multiple categories of retailers has not been reported. Methods: Data on licensed tobacco retailers within California from 2015-2019 wer...

Introduction: Previous studies have identified numerous adverse events experienced with use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), or e-cigarettes. Much remains unknown, however, about adverse event frequency, duration, and response experienced by users. The purpose of this study was to inductively characterize ENDS-attributed adverse even...

A case-control study was conducted between 12/01/2021–01/31/2022 to identify factors which increase risk for COVID-19 among athletes in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Behavioral factors and stadium attendance significantly decreased time to COVID-19 infection, but local COVID-19 rates were not associated in a multivariable model.

Background: There was an estimated 100,306 drug overdose deaths between April 2020 and April 2021, a three-quarters increase from the prior 12-month period. There is an approximate six-month reporting lag for provisional counts of drug overdose deaths from the National Vital Statistics System, and the highest level of geospatial resolution is at t...

Background TikTok is a microvideo social media platform currently experiencing rapid growth and with 60% of its monthly users between the ages of 16 and 24 years. Increased exposure to e-cigarette content on social media may influence patterns of use, including the risk of overconsumption and possible nicotine poisoning, when users engage in trendi...

Introduction Exposure to pro-tobacco and electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) social media content can lead to overconsumption, increasing the likelihood of nicotine poisoning. This study aims to examine trends and characteristics of nicotine sickness content on Twitter between 2018–2020. Methods Tweets were collected retrospectively from th...

Various tobacco vendors, including alternative tobacco product sellers, are listed on the popular crowdsourced business listing platform Yelp. Yelp is used to rate and choose tobacco, electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) goods/services and includes self-reporting of user experiences with shops and products. We cross-referenced California Dep...

Objective: We sought to determine school and community characteristics associated with proximity to tobacco and ENDS storefronts within a 0.5-kilometer radius in California. Methods: A list of licensed tobacco retailers was obtained from the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration; retailer names and addresses were used to scrape Yelp i...

BACKGROUND TikTok is a microvideo social media platform currently experiencing rapid growth and with 60% of its monthly users between the ages of 16 and 24 years. Increased exposure to e-cigarette content on social media may influence patterns of use, including the risk of overconsumption and possible nicotine poisoning, when users engage in trendi...

Background: The number of colleges and universities with smoke- or tobacco-free campus policies has been increasing. The effects of campus smoking policies on overall sentiment, particularly among young adult populations, are more difficult to assess owing to the changing tobacco and e-cigarette product landscape and differential attitudes toward...

BACKGROUND The number of colleges and universities with smoke- or tobacco-free campus policies has been increasing. The effects of campus smoking policies on overall sentiment, particularly among young adult populations, are more difficult to assess owing to the changing tobacco and e-cigarette product landscape and differential attitudes toward po...

Background Vitamin D has been identified as a potential protective factor in the development of colorectal cancer (CRC). We expect to see a stronger association of ultraviolet B (UVB) exposure and CRC crude rates with increasing age since chronic vitamin D deficiency leads to sustained molecular changes that increase cancer risk. The DINOMIT (disju...

Introduction: Concomitant with the popularization of vaping, vape shops have dramatically proliferated over the past years. This study assesses whether vape storefronts in California are significantly associated with density of different age groups, and whether this differs between tobacco storefronts or non-specific tobacco retailers. Methods:...

Background: Suicide and substance use disorder (SUD) pose serious public health challenges among young adults in the United States. Increasing social media use among these populations can be leveraged as an alternative method to detect characteristics of suicide-related topics and behavior among substance users. Objective: To detect and characteriz...

Introduction Early reports of COVID-19 cases and deaths may not accurately convey community-level concern about the pandemic during early stages, particularly in the United States where testing capacity was initially limited. Social media interaction may elucidate public reaction and communication dynamics about COVID-19 in this critical period, du...

Introduction: College-aged youth are active on social media yet smoking-related social media engagement in these populations has not been thoroughly investigated. We sought to conduct an exploratory infoveillance study focused on geolocated data to characterize smoking-related tweets originating from California 4-year colleges on Twitter. Methods:...

Background In 2016, the “Act on Support for Overseas Expansion of Healthcare System and Attraction of International Patients” was enacted by the South Korean government in an attempt to accelerate growth of its medical tourism industry. However, only a few years after its implementation, the benefits are not well understood, nor have the positive o...

Objectives To assess whether the late 2019 US outbreak of pulmonary disease linked to vaping (‘E-cigarette, or Vaping, product use Associated Lung Injury’ (EVALI)) impacted online shopping queries for vaping products and the Philip Morris ‘IQO’ brand of heated tobacco. Methods We tracked online shopping queries for vape(s), JUUL and IQOS by analys...

Introduction: Recent reports of lung injury associated with Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) products precipitated by increasing vaping prevalence and interest in flavors among adolescents has led to policies that restrict the sale, distribution, and accessibility of ENDS products. This study assessed compliance of online ENDS vendors to...

Background: Vitamin D has been identified as a potential protective factor the development of colorectal cancer (CRC). We expect to see a stronger association of ultraviolet B (UVB) exposure and CRC crude rates with increasing age since chronic vitamin D deficiency leads to sustained molecular changes that increase cancer risk. The DINOMIT (disjunc...

Introduction: Local rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths may not accurately convey the variability in community-level concern about COVID-19 during the early outbreak period in the United States. Social media interaction may elucidate communication about COVID-19 in this critical period, during which communities may have formulated initial conception...

Objectives According to current reporting, the number of active coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections is not evenly distributed, both spatially and temporally. Reported COVID-19 infections may not have properly conveyed the full extent of attention to the pandemic. Furthermore, infection metrics are unlikely to illustrate the full scope of...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps the greatest global health challenge of the last century. Accompanying this pandemic is a parallel "infodemic", including the online marketing and sale of unapproved, illegal and counterfeit COVID-19 health products, including testing kits, treatments, and other questionable "cures". Enabling proliferat...

BACKGROUND The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which began in Wuhan, China in December 2019, is rapidly spreading worldwide with over 1.9 million cases as of mid-April 2020. Infoveillance approaches using social media can help characterize disease distribution and public knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors critical to the early stages of a...

Background Vitamin D has been identified as a potential protective factor the development of colorectal cancer (CRC). We expect to see a stronger association of ultraviolet B (UVB) exposure and CRC crude rates with increasing age since chronic vitamin D deficiency leads to sustained molecular changes that increase cancer risk. The DINOMIT (disjunct...

Background: Vitamin D has been identified as a potential protective factor the development of colorectal cancer (CRC). We expect to see a stronger association of ultraviolet B (UVB) exposure and CRC crude rates with increasing age since chronic vitamin D deficiency leads to sustained molecular changes that increase cancer risk. The DINOMIT (disjunc...

Background: Vitamin D has been identified as a potential protective factor the development of colorectal cancer (CRC). We expect to see a stronger association of ultraviolet B (UVB) exposure and CRC crude rates with increasing age since chronic vitamin D deficiency leads to sustained molecular changes that increase cancer risk. The DINOMIT (disjunc...