Usage of Social Media and Smartphone Application in Assessment of Physical and Psychological Well-Being of Individuals in Times of a Major Air Pollution Crisis

Zhang, Melvyn WB; Ho, Cyrus SH; Fang, Pan; Lu, Yanxia; Ho, Roger CM

Nevertheless, there are several limitations in the current study. Our results are preliminary and cross-sectional in nature. The crisis that we have selected to evaluate lasted only for 1 week and participants were recruited over that short duration of time as the haze disappeared. Also, unlike that of other disasters, there was no large-scale consequential aftermath after the crisis, and most individuals were able to get back to normal life immediately, which is also a major limiting factor in our research. In addition, our study has an inherent cohort bias, as the study population consisted of younger and educated individuals, recruited by snowball sampling, which is a nonrandom sampling method. Hence, even though we have identified the preferences of our respondents, the observation cannot be generalized to other populations. Nevertheless, we need to emphasize that we encountered major difficulties with rapid planning of this research, recruiting participants, and gathering data over such a short period of time with uncertainty. As the impact of the event lasted only 1 week, it is difficult to plan for and conduct a proper social media network and smartphone application survey.