Tweets can predict heart disease rates, study finds

(Image credit: Bethany Clarke/Getty Images)

Common predictors of heart disease include smoking, diabetes, income, education, and obesity. But the bizarre truth is one factor might trump all of those combined: Twitter.

University of Pennsylvania researchers published a study in Psychological Science asserting just that, The Washington Post reports. They sorted geo-tagged public tweets across 1,300 U.S. counties by topics like hate, hostility and boredom.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.