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Das A, Dhillon P. Application of machine learning in measurement of ageing and geriatric diseases: a systematic review. BMC Geriatr 2023; 23:841. [PMID: 38087195 PMCID: PMC10717316 DOI: 10.1186/s12877-023-04477-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2023] [Accepted: 11/10/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND As the ageing population continues to grow in many countries, the prevalence of geriatric diseases is on the rise. In response, healthcare providers are exploring novel methods to enhance the quality of life for the elderly. Over the last decade, there has been a remarkable surge in the use of machine learning in geriatric diseases and care. Machine learning has emerged as a promising tool for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of these conditions. Hence, our study aims to find out the present state of research in geriatrics and the application of machine learning methods in this area. METHODS This systematic review followed Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and focused on healthy ageing in individuals aged 45 and above, with a specific emphasis on the diseases that commonly occur during this process. The study mainly focused on three areas, that are machine learning, the geriatric population, and diseases. Peer-reviewed articles were searched in the PubMed and Scopus databases with inclusion criteria of population above 45 years, must have used machine learning methods, and availability of full text. To assess the quality of the studies, Joanna Briggs Institute's (JBI) critical appraisal tool was used. RESULTS A total of 70 papers were selected from the 120 identified papers after going through title screening, abstract screening, and reference search. Limited research is available on predicting biological or brain age using deep learning and different supervised machine learning methods. Neurodegenerative disorders were found to be the most researched disease, in which Alzheimer's disease was focused the most. Among non-communicable diseases, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cancer, kidney diseases, and cardiovascular diseases were included, and other rare diseases like oral health-related diseases and bone diseases were also explored in some papers. In terms of the application of machine learning, risk prediction was the most common approach. Half of the studies have used supervised machine learning algorithms, among which logistic regression, random forest, XG Boost were frequently used methods. These machine learning methods were applied to a variety of datasets including population-based surveys, hospital records, and digitally traced data. CONCLUSION The review identified a wide range of studies that employed machine learning algorithms to analyse various diseases and datasets. While the application of machine learning in geriatrics and care has been well-explored, there is still room for future development, particularly in validating models across diverse populations and utilizing personalized digital datasets for customized patient-centric care in older populations. Further, we suggest a scope of Machine Learning in generating comparable ageing indices such as successful ageing index.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ayushi Das
- International Institute for Population Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai, 400088, India
| | - Preeti Dhillon
- Department of Survey Research and Data Analytics, International Institute for Population Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai, 400088, India.
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Roveta F, Grassini A, Marcinnò A, Rubino E, Rainero I. The political discourse on Alzheimer's disease and related dementias: a Twitter content analysis. Neurol Sci 2023; 44:3319-3320. [PMID: 37055709 DOI: 10.1007/s10072-023-06799-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2023] [Accepted: 04/07/2023] [Indexed: 04/15/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Fausto Roveta
- Aging Brain and Memory Clinic, Department of Neuroscience "Rita Levi-Montalcini", University of Torino, Turin, Italy.
| | - Alberto Grassini
- Aging Brain and Memory Clinic, Department of Neuroscience "Rita Levi-Montalcini", University of Torino, Turin, Italy
| | - Andrea Marcinnò
- Aging Brain and Memory Clinic, Department of Neuroscience "Rita Levi-Montalcini", University of Torino, Turin, Italy
| | - Elisa Rubino
- Aging Brain and Memory Clinic, Department of Neuroscience "Rita Levi-Montalcini", University of Torino, Turin, Italy
- Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, Turin, Italy
| | - Innocenzo Rainero
- Aging Brain and Memory Clinic, Department of Neuroscience "Rita Levi-Montalcini", University of Torino, Turin, Italy
- Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, Turin, Italy
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Tenzek KE, Lapan E, Ophir Y, Lattimer TA. Staying connected: Alzheimer's hashtags and opportunities for engagement and overcoming stigma. J Aging Stud 2023; 66:101165. [PMID: 37704283 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaging.2023.101165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2022] [Revised: 07/21/2023] [Accepted: 07/27/2023] [Indexed: 09/15/2023]
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a terminal, neurodegenerative disease, and consequently is difficult to communicate about as it is stigmatized, and discussions are rife with misconceptions. By situating AD conversations in the sociocultural space of the opportunity model of presence during the end-of-life process, a framework developed illustrating the potential trajectory from living with illness through death and into bereavement, we examined networked discussions surrounding Alzheimer's related hashtags on Twitter (N = 132,803) between January 1st, 2010, and September 29th, 2021. Using the mixed-method approach of the Analysis of Topic Model Network (ANTMN) framework, results revealed 30 topics clustered into five distinct themes: promotion, education, action, "You aren't alone", and dementia. Results indicated that discussions surrounding World Alzheimer's Day focused on changing stigma and promoting engagement in difficult conversations. The frequency of themes over time remained relatively stable. By understanding how Twitter's online discourse may be used to overcome stigmatized topics, we can continue to tailor messages to reduce stigma and provide support for those who experience similar health issues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelly E Tenzek
- 359 Department of Communication, Baldy Hall University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, United States of America.
| | - Emily Lapan
- 359 Department of Communication, Baldy Hall University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, United States of America
| | - Yotam Ophir
- 359 Department of Communication, Baldy Hall University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, United States of America
| | - Tahleen A Lattimer
- 359 Department of Communication, Baldy Hall University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, United States of America
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Creten S, Heynderickx P, Dieltjens S. The Stigma Toward Dementia on Twitter: A Sentiment Analysis of Dutch Language Tweets. JOURNAL OF HEALTH COMMUNICATION 2022; 27:697-705. [PMID: 36519829 DOI: 10.1080/10810730.2022.2149904] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
People living with dementia are often faced with attitudes indicating stigma. Social media platforms, such as Twitter, can allow for self-expression and support, but can also be used to disseminate misinformation, which can reinforce existing stigma. In the present study, we explore whether the stigma toward dementia is present in Dutch language tweets. In total, 969 tweets containing dementia-related keywords were collected during a period of five months in 2019 and 2020. These were analyzed by means of a sentiment analysis, which we approached as a classification task. The tweets were coded into seven dimensions, i.e., information, joke, metaphor, organization, personal experience, politics, and ridicule, using a semi-automatic machine learning approach. The emerging correlations with our use of Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software for sentiment analysis validate our approach. In the present study, 9.29% of tweets contain ridicule, propagating stigmatic attitudes on Twitter.
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Anderson JG, Jao YL. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Family-Focused Care of People With Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias. JOURNAL OF FAMILY NURSING 2022; 28:179-182. [PMID: 35822485 DOI: 10.1177/10748407221108200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
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Tenzek KE, Grant PC, Depner RM, Levy K, Byrwa DJ. Clinician Communication in Hospice: Constructions of Reality Throughout the End-of-Life Process. OMEGA-JOURNAL OF DEATH AND DYING 2022:302228221116719. [PMID: 35861222 DOI: 10.1177/00302228221116719] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
The current study examined qualitative data from hospice clinicians' perspectives on language, surrounding end-of-life (EOL), to understand challenges and opportunities for constructing a trajectory of communication leading towards a good death experience. Findings from two focus groups with nine clinicians' and 12 individual interviews, four of which were follow up interviews after the focus groups, were guided by framework analysis and revealed three themes, constructing language choices, roles and responsibilities, and socio-cultural considerations. We used the Opportunity Model for Presence during the End-of-Life Process (OMP-EOLP) to make sense of the findings and discuss implications for language use throughout the EOL process. We argue additional efforts should be made in recognizing the value of presence checks, re-constructing advance care planning, and utilizing different forms of media as an educational tool and connection mechanism for clinicians with patients and families to achieve a timely engagement of EOL conversations for all healthcare participants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelly E Tenzek
- Department of Communication, Baldy Hall University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA
| | - Pei C Grant
- Phronesis Consulting LLC, Clarence, NY, USA
- Hospice and Palliative Care Buffalo, Cheektowaga, NY, USA
| | - Rachel M Depner
- Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School at Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | - Kathryn Levy
- Department of Research, Hospice and Palliative Care Buffalo, Cheektowaga, NY, USA
- Department of Planning and Research, Trocaire College, Buffalo, NY, USA
| | - David J Byrwa
- University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Buffalo, NY, USA
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He L, Yin T, Zheng K. They May not Work! An Evaluation of Eleven Sentiment Analysis Tools on Seven Social Media Datasets. J Biomed Inform 2022; 132:104142. [PMID: 35835437 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbi.2022.104142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2022] [Revised: 07/05/2022] [Accepted: 07/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Sentiment analysis is an important method for understanding emotions and opinions expressed through social media exchanges. Little work has been done to evaluate the performance of existing sentiment analysis tools on social media datasets, particularly those related to health, healthcare, or public health. This study aims to address the gap. MATERIAL AND METHODS We evaluated 11 commonly used sentiment analysis tools on five health-related social media datasets curated in previously published studies. These datasets include Human Papillomavirus Vaccine, Health Care Reform, COVID-19 Masking, Vitals.com Physician Reviews, and the Breast Cancer Forum from MedHelp.org. For comparison, we also analyzed two non-health datasets based on movie reviews and generic tweets. We conducted a qualitative error analysis on the social media posts that were incorrectly classified by all tools. RESULTS The existing sentiment analysis tools performed poorly with an average weighted F1 score below 0.6. The inter-tool agreement was also low; the average Fleiss Kappa score is 0.066. The qualitative error analysis identified two major causes for misclassification: (1) correct sentiment but on wrong subject(s) and (2) failure to properly interpret inexplicit/indirect sentiment expressions. DISCUSSION and Conclusion: The performance of the existing sentiment analysis tools is insufficient to generate accurate sentiment classification results. The low inter-tool agreement suggests that the conclusion of a study could be entirely driven by the idiosyncrasies of the tool selected, rather than by the data. This is very concerning especially if the results may be used to inform important policy decisions such as mask or vaccination mandates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lu He
- Department of Informatics, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States
| | - Tingjue Yin
- Department of Informatics, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States
| | - Kai Zheng
- Department of Informatics, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States; Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States.
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Erturk S, Hudson G, Jansli SM, Morris D, Odoi CM, Wilson E, Clayton-Turner A, Bray V, Yourston G, Cornwall A, Cummins N, Wykes T, Jilka S. Codeveloping and Evaluating a Campaign to Reduce Dementia Misconceptions on Twitter: Machine Learning Study. JMIR INFODEMIOLOGY 2022; 2:e36871. [PMID: 37113444 PMCID: PMC9987190 DOI: 10.2196/36871] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2022] [Revised: 06/23/2022] [Accepted: 08/15/2022] [Indexed: 04/29/2023]
Abstract
Background Dementia misconceptions on Twitter can have detrimental or harmful effects. Machine learning (ML) models codeveloped with carers provide a method to identify these and help in evaluating awareness campaigns. Objective This study aimed to develop an ML model to distinguish between misconceptions and neutral tweets and to develop, deploy, and evaluate an awareness campaign to tackle dementia misconceptions. Methods Taking 1414 tweets rated by carers from our previous work, we built 4 ML models. Using a 5-fold cross-validation, we evaluated them and performed a further blind validation with carers for the best 2 ML models; from this blind validation, we selected the best model overall. We codeveloped an awareness campaign and collected pre-post campaign tweets (N=4880), classifying them with our model as misconceptions or not. We analyzed dementia tweets from the United Kingdom across the campaign period (N=7124) to investigate how current events influenced misconception prevalence during this time. Results A random forest model best identified misconceptions with an accuracy of 82% from blind validation and found that 37% of the UK tweets (N=7124) about dementia across the campaign period were misconceptions. From this, we could track how the prevalence of misconceptions changed in response to top news stories in the United Kingdom. Misconceptions significantly rose around political topics and were highest (22/28, 79% of the dementia tweets) when there was controversy over the UK government allowing to continue hunting during the COVID-19 pandemic. After our campaign, there was no significant change in the prevalence of misconceptions. Conclusions Through codevelopment with carers, we developed an accurate ML model to predict misconceptions in dementia tweets. Our awareness campaign was ineffective, but similar campaigns could be enhanced through ML to respond to current events that affect misconceptions in real time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sinan Erturk
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust London United Kingdom
| | - Georgie Hudson
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust London United Kingdom
| | - Sonja M Jansli
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust London United Kingdom
| | - Daniel Morris
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust London United Kingdom
| | - Clarissa M Odoi
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust London United Kingdom
| | - Emma Wilson
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust London United Kingdom
| | - Angela Clayton-Turner
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London United Kingdom
| | - Vanessa Bray
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London United Kingdom
| | - Gill Yourston
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London United Kingdom
| | - Andrew Cornwall
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London United Kingdom
| | - Nicholas Cummins
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London United Kingdom
| | - Til Wykes
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust London United Kingdom
| | - Sagar Jilka
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King's College London London United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust London United Kingdom
- Warwick Medical School University of Warwick Coventry United Kingdom
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Bacsu JDR, O'Connell ME, Cammer A, Ahmadi S, Berger C, Azizi M, Gowda-Sookochoff R, Grewal KS, Green S, Knight S, Spiteri RJ. Examining the COVID-19 Impact on People with Dementia from the Perspective of Family and Friends. JMIR Aging 2022; 5:e38363. [PMID: 35667087 PMCID: PMC9239564 DOI: 10.2196/38363] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2022] [Revised: 05/25/2022] [Accepted: 06/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Background The COVID-19 pandemic is taking a serious toll on people with dementia. Given the rapidly evolving COVID-19 context, policymakers and practitioners require timely, evidence-informed research to address the changing needs and challenges of people with dementia and their family care partners. Objective Using Twitter data, the objective of this study was to examine the COVID-19 impact on people with dementia from the perspective of their family members and friends. Methods Using the Twint application in Python, we collected 6243 relevant tweets over a 15-month time frame. The tweets were divided among 11 coders and analyzed using a 6-step thematic analysis process. Results Based on our analysis, 3 main themes were identified: (1) frustration and structural inequities (eg, denied dignity and inadequate supports), (2) despair due to loss (eg, isolation, decline, and death), and (3) resiliency, survival, and hope for the future. Conclusions As the COVID-19 pandemic persists and new variants emerge, people with dementia and their family care partners are facing complex challenges that require timely interventions. More specifically, tackling COVID-19 challenges requires revisiting pandemic policies and protocols to ensure equitable access to health and support services, recognizing the essential role of family care partners, and providing financial assistance and resources to help support people with dementia in the pandemic. Revaluating COVID-19 policies is critical to mitigating the pandemic’s impact on people with dementia and their family care partners.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juanita-Dawne R Bacsu
- Department of Psychology, Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture (CCHSA), University of Saskatchewan, Arts 182, 9 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, CA
| | - Megan E O'Connell
- Department of Psychology, Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture (CCHSA), University of Saskatchewan, Arts 182, 9 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, CA
| | - Allison Cammer
- College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, CA
| | - Soheila Ahmadi
- Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, CA
| | - Corinne Berger
- Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, CA
| | - Mehrnoosh Azizi
- Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, CA
| | | | - Karl S Grewal
- Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, CA
| | - Shoshana Green
- Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, CA
| | - Sheida Knight
- Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, CA
| | - Raymond J Spiteri
- Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, CA
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Bacsu JD, Cammer A, Ahmadi S, Azizi M, Grewal KS, Green S, Gowda-Sookochoff R, Berger C, Knight S, Spiteri RJ, O'Connell ME. Examining Twitter Discourse on Dementia during Alzheimer’s Awareness Month in Canada: Infodemiology Study (Preprint). JMIR Form Res 2022; 6:e40049. [DOI: 10.2196/40049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2022] [Revised: 09/09/2022] [Accepted: 09/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Bartmess M, Talbot C, O'Dwyer ST, Lopez RP, Rose KM, Anderson JG. Using Twitter to understand perspectives and experiences of dementia and caregiving at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. DEMENTIA 2022; 21:1734-1752. [PMID: 35549466 PMCID: PMC9111911 DOI: 10.1177/14713012221096982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a tremendous burden on all of society,
particularly among vulnerable populations such as people living with dementia
and their caregivers. Efforts to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
on those living with dementia are crucial towards addressing needs during the
pandemic and beyond. This qualitative descriptive study includes a thematic
analysis of 6938 tweets from March 17–24, 2020, that included direct or indirect
references to COVID-19 and at least one of the following terms/hashtags:
Alzheimer, #Alzheimer, dementia, and #dementia. Five themes were identified:
continuing care, finding support, preventing spread of COVID-19, maintaining
human rights, and the impact of the pandemic on the daily lives of people living
with dementia. People living with dementia and their families faced unique
challenges related to caregiving, maintaining social connectedness while trying
to follow public health guidelines, and navigating the convergence of COVID-19
and dementia-related stigma. Data from Twitter can be an effective means to
understand the impacts of public health emergencies among those living with
dementia and how to address their needs moving forward by highlighting gaps in
practice, services, and research.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Catherine Talbot
- Department of Psychology, 276175Bournemouth University, Poole, UK
| | - Siobhan T O'Dwyer
- College of Medicine and Health, University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, UK
| | - Ruth Palan Lopez
- School of Nursing, 15646MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston MA, USA
| | - Karen M Rose
- Center for Healthy Aging, Self-Management and Complex Care, College of Nursing, 2647The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Joel G Anderson
- College of Nursing, 4285University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
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Alhayan F, Pennington D, Ayouni S. Twitter use by the dementia community during COVID-19: a user classification and social network analysis. ONLINE INFORMATION REVIEW 2022. [DOI: 10.1108/oir-04-2021-0208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
PurposeThe study aimed to examine how different communities concerned with dementia engage and interact on Twitter.Design/methodology/approachA dataset was sampled from 8,400 user profile descriptions, which was labelled into five categories and subjected to multiple machine learning (ML) classification experiments based on text features to classify user categories. Social network analysis (SNA) was used to identify influential communities via graph-based metrics on user categories. The relationship between bot score and network metrics in these groups was also explored.FindingsClassification accuracy values were achieved at 82% using support vector machine (SVM). The SNA revealed influential behaviour on both the category and node levels. About 2.19% suspected social bots contributed to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) dementia discussions in different communities.Originality/valueThe study is a unique attempt to apply SNA to examine the most influential groups of Twitter users in the dementia community. The findings also highlight the capability of ML methods for efficient multi-category classification in a crisis, considering the fast-paced generation of data.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2021-0208.
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Li A, Jiao D, Zhu T. Stigmatizing Attitudes Across Cybersuicides and Offline Suicides: Content Analysis of Sina Weibo. J Med Internet Res 2022; 24:e36489. [PMID: 35394437 PMCID: PMC9034432 DOI: 10.2196/36489] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2022] [Revised: 02/19/2022] [Accepted: 03/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background The new reality of cybersuicide raises challenges to ideologies about the traditional form of suicide that does not involve the internet (offline suicide), which may lead to changes in audience’s attitudes. However, knowledge on whether stigmatizing attitudes differ between cybersuicides and offline suicides remains limited. Objective This study aims to consider livestreamed suicide as a typical representative of cybersuicide and use social media data (Sina Weibo) to investigate the differences in stigmatizing attitudes across cybersuicides and offline suicides in terms of attitude types and linguistic characteristics. Methods A total of 4393 cybersuicide-related and 2843 offline suicide-related Weibo posts were collected and analyzed. First, human coders were recruited and trained to perform a content analysis on the collected posts to determine whether each of them reflected stigma. Second, a text analysis tool was used to automatically extract a number of psycholinguistic features from each post. Subsequently, based on the selected features, a series of classification models were constructed for different purposes: differentiating the general stigma of cybersuicide from that of offline suicide and differentiating the negative stereotypes of cybersuicide from that of offline suicide. Results In terms of attitude types, cybersuicide was observed to carry more stigma than offline suicide (χ21=179.8; P<.001). Between cybersuicides and offline suicides, there were significant differences in the proportion of posts associated with five different negative stereotypes, including stupid and shallow (χ21=28.9; P<.001), false representation (χ21=144.4; P<.001), weak and pathetic (χ21=20.4; P<.001), glorified and normalized (χ21=177.6; P<.001), and immoral (χ21=11.8; P=.001). Similar results were also found for different genders and regions. In terms of linguistic characteristics, the F-measure values of the classification models ranged from 0.81 to 0.85. Conclusions The way people perceive cybersuicide differs from how they perceive offline suicide. The results of this study have implications for reducing the stigma against suicide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ang Li
- Department of Psychology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China.,Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Dongdong Jiao
- National Computer System Engineering Research Institute of China, Beijing, China
| | - Tingshao Zhu
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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Bacsu JDR, O'Connell ME, Wighton MB. Improving the health equity and the human rights of Canadians with dementia through a social determinants approach: a call to action in the COVID-19 pandemic. CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH = REVUE CANADIENNE DE SANTE PUBLIQUE 2022; 113:204-208. [PMID: 35239172 PMCID: PMC8892822 DOI: 10.17269/s41997-022-00618-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2021] [Accepted: 02/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
In 2019, the Canadian Government released a national dementia strategy that identified the need to address the health inequity (e.g., avoidable, unfair, and unjust differences in health outcomes) and improve the human rights of people living with dementia. However, the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is having an inequitable impact on people with dementia in terms of mortality and human rights violations. As the new Omicron COVID-19 variant approaches its peak, our commentary highlights the need for urgent action to support people living with dementia and their care partners. More specifically, we argue that reducing COVID-19 inequities requires addressing underlying population-level factors known as the social determinants of health. Health disparities cannot be rectified merely by looking at mortality rates of people with dementia. Thus, we believe that improving the COVID-19 outcomes of people with dementia requires addressing key determinants such as where people live, their social supports, and having equitable access to healthcare services. Drawing on Canadian-based examples, we conclude that COVID-19 policy responses to the pandemic must be informed by evidence-informed research and collaborative partnerships that embrace the lived experience of diverse people living with dementia and their care partners.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juanita-Dawne R Bacsu
- Department of Psychology, Rural Dementia Action Research (RaDAR) Team, Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture (CCHSA), University of Saskatchewan, Arts 182, 9 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5A5, Canada.
| | - Megan E O'Connell
- Department of Psychology, Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
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Talbot CV, Briggs P. The use of digital technologies by people with mild-to-moderate dementia during the COVID-19 pandemic: A positive technology perspective. DEMENTIA 2022; 21:1363-1380. [PMID: 35333111 PMCID: PMC8960751 DOI: 10.1177/14713012221079477] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
A growing body of research has shown that people with dementia are using digital technologies to enhance lived experience. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new digital opportunities and challenges and so provides a unique opportunity to understand how people with dementia have adapted to this new digital landscape. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 people with dementia and analysed thematically. We generated five themes, showing how participants used digital means to combat the stresses of the pandemic by facilitating social connection, self-actualisation, enhanced well-being and by assisting with activities of daily life. These technologies helped to reduce isolation, provide access to support groups, create opportunities for cognitive stimulation and self-development, and engendered a sense of identity at a time of perceived loss. Despite these benefits, participants also reported challenges regarding cognitive fatigue and usability issues. We recommend that training on how to use digital technologies is co-produced with people with dementia and designers engage with the voices of people with dementia throughout the design process. In turn, this could promote the social connectedness, well-being and self-worth of people with dementia.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Pam Briggs
- Department of Psychology, 5995Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
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16
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Jilka S, Odoi CM, van Bilsen J, Morris D, Erturk S, Cummins N, Cella M, Wykes T. Identifying schizophrenia stigma on Twitter: a proof of principle model using service user supervised machine learning. NPJ SCHIZOPHRENIA 2022; 8:1. [PMID: 35132080 PMCID: PMC8821670 DOI: 10.1038/s41537-021-00197-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2021] [Accepted: 12/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Stigma has negative effects on people with mental health problems by making them less likely to seek help. We develop a proof of principle service user supervised machine learning pipeline to identify stigmatising tweets reliably and understand the prevalence of public schizophrenia stigma on Twitter. A service user group advised on the machine learning model evaluation metric (fewest false negatives) and features for machine learning. We collected 13,313 public tweets on schizophrenia between January and May 2018. Two service user researchers manually identified stigma in 746 English tweets; 80% were used to train eight models, and 20% for testing. The two models with fewest false negatives were compared in two service user validation exercises, and the best model used to classify all extracted public English tweets. Tweets classed as stigmatising by service users were more negative in sentiment (t (744) = 12.02, p < 0.001 [95% CI: 0.196–0.273]). Our linear Support Vector Machine was the best performing model with fewest false negatives and higher service user validation. This model identified public stigma in 47% of English tweets (n5,676) which were more negative in sentiment (t (12,143) = 64.38, p < 0.001 [95% CI: 0.29–0.31]). Machine learning can identify stigmatising tweets at large scale, with service user involvement. Given the prevalence of stigma, there is an urgent need for education and online campaigns to reduce it. Machine learning can provide a real time metric on their success.
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17
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Hudson G, Jansli SM, Erturk S, Morris D, Odoi CM, Clayton-Turner A, Bray V, Yourston G, Clouden D, Proudfoot D, Cornwall A, Waldron C, Wykes T, Jilka S. Investigation of Carers’ Perspectives of Dementia Misconceptions on Twitter: Focus Group Study. JMIR Aging 2022; 5:e30388. [PMID: 35072637 PMCID: PMC8822432 DOI: 10.2196/30388] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2021] [Revised: 09/24/2021] [Accepted: 11/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Dementia misconceptions on social media are common, with negative effects on people with the condition, their carers, and those who know them. This study codeveloped a thematic framework with carers to understand the forms these misconceptions take on Twitter. Objective The aim of this study is to identify and analyze types of dementia conversations on Twitter using participatory methods. Methods A total of 3 focus groups with dementia carers were held to develop a framework of dementia misconceptions based on their experiences. Dementia-related tweets were collected from Twitter’s official application programming interface using neutral and negative search terms defined by the literature and by carers (N=48,211). A sample of these tweets was selected with equal numbers of neutral and negative words (n=1497), which was validated in individual ratings by carers. We then used the framework to analyze, in detail, a sample of carer-rated negative tweets (n=863). Results A total of 25.94% (12,507/48,211) of our tweet corpus contained negative search terms about dementia. The carers’ framework had 3 negative and 3 neutral categories. Our thematic analysis of carer-rated negative tweets found 9 themes, including the use of weaponizing language to insult politicians (469/863, 54.3%), using dehumanizing or outdated words or statements about members of the public (n=143, 16.6%), unfounded claims about the cures or causes of dementia (n=11, 1.3%), or providing armchair diagnoses of dementia (n=21, 2.4%). Conclusions This is the first study to use participatory methods to develop a framework that identifies dementia misconceptions on Twitter. We show that misconceptions and stigmatizing language are not rare. They manifest through minimizing and underestimating language. Web-based campaigns aiming to reduce discrimination and stigma about dementia could target those who use negative vocabulary and reduce the misconceptions that are being propagated, thus improving general awareness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Georgie Hudson
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
| | - Sonja M Jansli
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
| | - Sinan Erturk
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
| | - Daniel Morris
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
| | - Clarissa M Odoi
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
| | - Angela Clayton-Turner
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Vanessa Bray
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Gill Yourston
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Doreen Clouden
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - David Proudfoot
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Andrew Cornwall
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Claire Waldron
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Til Wykes
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
| | - Sagar Jilka
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
- Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
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18
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Turner J, Kantardzic M, Vickers-Smith R. Infodemiological Examination of Personal and Commercial Tweets About Cannabidiol: Term and Sentiment Analysis. J Med Internet Res 2021; 23:e27307. [PMID: 34932014 PMCID: PMC8726039 DOI: 10.2196/27307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2021] [Revised: 05/21/2021] [Accepted: 11/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND In the absence of official clinical trial information, data from social networks can be used by public health and medical researchers to assess public claims about loosely regulated substances such as cannabidiol (CBD). For example, this can be achieved by comparing the medical conditions targeted by those selling CBD against the medical conditions patients commonly treat with CBD. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to provide a framework for public health and medical researchers to use for identifying and analyzing the consumption and marketing of unregulated substances. Specifically, we examined CBD, which is a substance that is often presented to the public as medication despite complete evidence of efficacy and safety. METHODS We collected 567,850 tweets by searching Twitter with the Tweepy Python package using the terms "CBD" and "cannabidiol." We trained two binary text classifiers to create two corpora of 167,755 personal use and 143,322 commercial/sales tweets. Using medical, standard, and slang dictionaries, we identified and compared the most frequently occurring medical conditions, symptoms, side effects, body parts, and other substances referenced in both corpora. In addition, to assess popular claims about the efficacy of CBD as a medical treatment circulating on Twitter, we performed sentiment analysis via the VADER (Valence Aware Dictionary for Sentiment Reasoning) model on the personal CBD tweets. RESULTS We found references to medically relevant terms that were unique to either personal or commercial CBD tweet classes, as well as medically relevant terms that were common to both classes. When we calculated the average sentiment scores for both personal and commercial CBD tweets referencing at least one of 17 medical conditions/symptoms terms, an overall positive sentiment was observed in both personal and commercial CBD tweets. We observed instances of negative sentiment conveyed in personal CBD tweets referencing autism, whereas CBD was also marketed multiple times as a treatment for autism within commercial tweets. CONCLUSIONS Our proposed framework provides a tool for public health and medical researchers to analyze the consumption and marketing of unregulated substances on social networks. Our analysis showed that most users of CBD are satisfied with it in regard to the condition that it is being advertised for, with the exception of autism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason Turner
- Data Mining Lab, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, United States
| | - Mehmed Kantardzic
- Data Mining Lab, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, United States
| | - Rachel Vickers-Smith
- Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
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19
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Lattimer TA, Tenzek KE, Ophir Y, Sullivan SS. Exploring Online Twitter Conversations surrounding National Healthcare Decisions Day and Advance Care Planning from a Socio-Cultural Perspective: A Computational Mixed-Methods Analysis (Preprint). JMIR Form Res 2021; 6:e35795. [PMID: 35416783 PMCID: PMC9047726 DOI: 10.2196/35795] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2021] [Revised: 03/07/2022] [Accepted: 03/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Within the cultures and societies of the United States, topics related to death and dying continue to be taboo, and as a result, opportunities for presence and engagement during the end of life, which could lead to a good death, are avoided. Several efforts have been made to help people engage in advance care planning (ACP) conversations, including completing advance care directives so that they may express their goals of care if they become too sick to communicate their wishes. A major effort in the United States toward encouraging such challenging discussions is the annual celebration of the National Healthcare Decisions Day. Objective This study aimed to explore ACP from a sociocultural perspective by using Twitter as a communication tool. Methods All publicly available tweets published between August 1, 2020, and July 30, 2021 (N=9713) were collected and analyzed using the computational mixed methods Analysis of Topic Model Network approach. Results The results revealed that conversations driven primarily by laypersons (7107/7410, 95.91% of tweets originated from unverified accounts) surrounded the following three major themes: importance and promotion, surrounding language, and systemic issues. Conclusions On the basis of the results, we argue that there is a need for awareness of the barriers that people may face when engaging in ACP conversations, including systemic barriers, literacy levels, misinformation, policies (including Medicare reimbursements), and trust among health care professionals, in the United States. This is incredibly important for clinicians and scholars worldwide to be aware of as we strive to re-envision ACP, so that people are more comfortable engaging in ACP conversations. In terms of the content of tweets, we argue that there is a chasm between the biomedical and biopsychosocial elements of ACP, including patient narratives. If used properly, Twitter conversations and National Health Care Decision Day hashtags could be harnessed to serve as a connecting point among organizations, physicians, patients, and family members to lay the groundwork for the trajectory toward a good death.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tahleen A Lattimer
- Department of Communication, University at Buffalo, SUNY, East Amherst, NY, United States
| | - Kelly E Tenzek
- Department of Communication, University at Buffalo, SUNY, East Amherst, NY, United States
| | - Yotam Ophir
- Department of Communication, University at Buffalo, SUNY, East Amherst, NY, United States
| | - Suzanne S Sullivan
- School of Nursing, University at Buffalo, SUNY, East Amherst, NY, United States
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20
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Bacsu JD, Fraser S, Chasteen AL, Cammer A, Grewal KS, Bechard LE, Bethell J, Green S, McGilton KS, Morgan D, O'Rourke HM, Poole L, Spiteri RJ, O'Connell ME. Using Twitter to Examine Stigma Against People with Dementia During COVID-19: Infodemiology Study (Preprint). JMIR Aging 2021; 5:e35677. [PMID: 35290197 PMCID: PMC9015751 DOI: 10.2196/35677] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2021] [Accepted: 03/14/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Juanita-Dawne Bacsu
- Department of Psychology, Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
| | - Sarah Fraser
- Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Alison L Chasteen
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Allison Cammer
- College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
| | - Karl S Grewal
- Department of Psychology, Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
| | - Lauren E Bechard
- Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences, Faculty of Health, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
| | - Jennifer Bethell
- Knowledge, Innovation, Talent and Everywhere (KITE) - Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Shoshana Green
- Department of Psychology, Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
| | - Katherine S McGilton
- Knowledge, Innovation, Talent and Everywhere (KITE) - Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Debra Morgan
- Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
| | | | - Lisa Poole
- Dementia Advocacy Canada, Calgary, AB, Canada
| | - Raymond J Spiteri
- Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
| | - Megan E O'Connell
- Department of Psychology, Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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21
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Jackson JC, Watts J, List JM, Puryear C, Drabble R, Lindquist KA. From Text to Thought: How Analyzing Language Can Advance Psychological Science. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2021; 17:805-826. [PMID: 34606730 PMCID: PMC9069665 DOI: 10.1177/17456916211004899] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Humans have been using language for millennia but have only just begun to scratch the surface of what natural language can reveal about the mind. Here we propose that language offers a unique window into psychology. After briefly summarizing the legacy of language analyses in psychological science, we show how methodological advances have made these analyses more feasible and insightful than ever before. In particular, we describe how two forms of language analysis—natural-language processing and comparative linguistics—are contributing to how we understand topics as diverse as emotion, creativity, and religion and overcoming obstacles related to statistical power and culturally diverse samples. We summarize resources for learning both of these methods and highlight the best way to combine language analysis with more traditional psychological paradigms. Applying language analysis to large-scale and cross-cultural datasets promises to provide major breakthroughs in psychological science.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua Conrad Jackson
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
| | - Joseph Watts
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.,Center for Research on Evolution, Belief, and Behaviour, University of Otago.,Religion Programme, University of Otago
| | - Johann-Mattis List
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
| | - Curtis Puryear
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
| | - Ryan Drabble
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
| | - Kristen A Lindquist
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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22
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Lazarus JV, Kakalou C, Palayew A, Karamanidou C, Maramis C, Natsiavas P, Picchio CA, Villota-Rivas M, Zelber-Sagi S, Carrieri P. A Twitter discourse analysis of negative feelings and stigma related to NAFLD, NASH and obesity. Liver Int 2021; 41:2295-2307. [PMID: 34022107 DOI: 10.1111/liv.14969] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2021] [Revised: 04/27/2021] [Accepted: 05/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND People with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) are stigmatized, partly since 'non-alcoholic' is in the name, but also because of obesity, which is a common condition in this group. Stigma is pervasive in social media and can contribute to poorer health outcomes. We examine how stigma and negative feelings concerning NAFLD/NASH and obesity manifest on Twitter. METHODS Using a self-developed search terms index, we collected NAFLD/NASH tweets from May to October 2019 (Phase I). Because stigmatizing NAFLD/NASH tweets were limited, Phase II focused on obesity (November-December 2019). Via sentiment analysis, >5000 tweets were annotated as positive, neutral or negative and used to train machine learning-based Natural Language Processing software, applied to 193 747 randomly sampled tweets. All tweets collected were analysed. RESULTS In Phase I, 16 835 tweets for NAFLD and 2376 for NASH were retrieved. Of the annotated NAFLD/NASH tweets, 97/1130 (8.6%) and 63/535 (11.8%), respectively, related to obesity and 13/1130 (1.2%) and 5/535 (0.9%), to stigma; they primarily focused on scientific discourse and unverified information. Of the 193 747 non-annotated obesity tweets (Phase II), the algorithm classified 40.0% as related to obesity, of which 85.2% were negative, 1.0% positive and 13.7% neutral. CONCLUSIONS NAFLD/NASH tweets mostly indicated an unmet information need and showed no clear signs of stigma. However, the negative content of obesity tweets was recurrent. As obesity-related stigma is associated with reduced care engagement and lifestyle modification, the main NAFLD/NASH treatment, stigma-reducing interventions in social media should be included in the liver health agenda.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeffrey V Lazarus
- Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Christine Kakalou
- Institute of Applied Biosciences, Centre for Research & Technology Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Adam Palayew
- McGill Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Christina Karamanidou
- Institute of Applied Biosciences, Centre for Research & Technology Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Christos Maramis
- Institute of Applied Biosciences, Centre for Research & Technology Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Pantelis Natsiavas
- Institute of Applied Biosciences, Centre for Research & Technology Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Camila A Picchio
- Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Marcela Villota-Rivas
- Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Shira Zelber-Sagi
- School of Public Health, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.,Department of Gastroenterology, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Patrizia Carrieri
- Aix Marseille Univ, INSERM, IRD, SESSTIM, Sciences Economiques & Sociales de la Santé & Traitement de l'Information Médicale, ISSPAM, Marseille, France
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23
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Xi W, Xu W, Zhang X, Ayalon L. A Thematic Analysis of Weibo Topics (Chinese Twitter Hashtags) Regarding Older Adults During the COVID-19 Outbreak. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2021; 76:e306-e312. [PMID: 32882029 PMCID: PMC7499682 DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbaa148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Objectives We explored the portrayal of older adults and the public response to topics concerning older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chinese social media (Weibo topics, equivalent to hashtags on Twitter). We also explored the temporal trends of dominant themes to identify changes over time. Method Topics related to older adults were searched in the Weibo topic search engine between January 20 and April 28, 2020. Overall, 241 topics and their view frequency and comment frequency were collected. Inductive thematic analysis was conducted to classify the topics into themes. The popularity of each theme was also analyzed. In addition, the frequency with which each theme appeared during the three major stages of the pandemic (outbreak, turnover, post-peak) was reported. Results Six main themes were identified. “Older adults contributing to the community” was the most prominent theme with the highest average comment frequency per topic. It was also the most dominant theme in the first stage of the pandemic. “Older patients in hospitals” was the second most prominent theme, and the most dominant theme in the second and third stages of the pandemic. The percentage of topics with the themes “Care recipients” and “Older adults caring for the young” increased over time. Discussion The portrayal of older people as being warm, competent, and actively exercising their agency is prevalent on Weibo. The Weibo-viewing public shows signs of interest in intergenerational solidarity during the pandemic in China. These findings are different from findings reported by studies conducted in the West.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wanyu Xi
- Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Wenqian Xu
- Department of Culture and Society, Linköping University, Norrköping, Sweden
| | - Xin Zhang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, China
| | - Liat Ayalon
- Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
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24
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Pavan Kumar C, Dhinesh Babu L. Fuzzy based feature engineering architecture for sentiment analysis of medical discussion over online social networks. JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT & FUZZY SYSTEMS 2021. [DOI: 10.3233/jifs-202874] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Sentiment analysis is widely used to retrieve the hidden sentiments in medical discussions over Online Social Networking platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. People often tend to convey their feelings concerning their medical problems over social media platforms. Practitioners and health care workers have started to observe these discussions to assess the impact of health-related issues among the people. This helps in providing better care to improve the quality of life. Dementia is a serious disease in western countries like the United States of America and the United Kingdom, and the respective governments are providing facilities to the affected people. There is much chatter over social media platforms concerning the patients’ care, healthy measures to be followed to avoid disease, check early indications. These chatters have to be carefully monitored to help the officials take necessary precautions for the betterment of the affected. A novel Feature engineering architecture that involves feature-split for sentiment analysis of medical chatter over online social networks with the pipeline is proposed that can be used on any Machine Learning model. The proposed model used the fuzzy membership function in refining the outputs. The machine learning model has obtained sentiment score is subjected to fuzzification and defuzzification by using the trapezoid membership function and center of sums method, respectively. Three datasets are considered for comparison of the proposed and the regular model. The proposed approach delivered better results than the normal approach and is proved to be an effective approach for sentiment analysis of medical discussions over online social networks.
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Affiliation(s)
- C.S. Pavan Kumar
- School of Computer Science & Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India
| | - L.D. Dhinesh Babu
- School of Information Technology & Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore India
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25
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Bonnevie E, Goldbarg J, Gallegos-Jeffry AK, Rosenberg SD, Wartella E, Smyser J. [Content Themes and Influential Voices Within Vaccine Opposition on Twitter, 2019]. Rev Panam Salud Publica 2021; 45:e54. [PMID: 33995521 PMCID: PMC8110876 DOI: 10.26633/rpsp.2021.54] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Objetivo. Informar sobre la oposición a las vacunas y la información errónea fomentadas en Twitter, destacando las cuentas de Twitter que dirigen estas conversaciones. Métodos. Utilizamos el aprendizaje automático supervisado para codificar todos los mensajes publicados en Twitter. En primer lugar, identificamos manualmente los códigos y los temas mediante un enfoque teórico fundamentado y, a continuación, los aplicamos a todo el conjunto de datos de forma algorítmica. Identificamos a los 50 autores más importantes un mes tras otro para determinar las fuentes influyentes de información relacionadas con la oposición a las vacunas. Resultados. El período de recopilación de datos fue del 1 de junio al 1 de diciembre del 2019, lo que dio lugar a 356 594 mensajes opuestos a las vacunas. Un total de 129 autores de Twitter reunieron los criterios de autor principal durante al menos un mes. Los autores principales fueron responsables del 59,5% de los mensajes opuestos a las vacunas y detectamos diez temas de conversación. Los temas se distribuyeron de forma similar entre los autores principales y todos los demás autores que declararon su oposición a las vacunas. Los autores principales parecían estar muy coordinados en su promoción de la información errónea sobre cada tema. Conclusiones. La salud pública se ha esforzado por responder a la información errónea sobre las vacunas. Los resultados indican que las fuentes de información errónea sobre las vacunas no son tan heterogéneas ni están tan distribuidas como podría parecer a primera vista, dado el volumen de mensajes. Existen fuentes identificables de información errónea, lo que puede ayudar a contrarrestar los mensajes y a fortalecer la vigilancia de la salud pública.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erika Bonnevie
- The Public Good Projects Alexandria Estados Unidos de América The Public Good Projects, Alexandria, Estados Unidos de América
| | - Jaclyn Goldbarg
- The Public Good Projects Alexandria Estados Unidos de América The Public Good Projects, Alexandria, Estados Unidos de América
| | - Allison K Gallegos-Jeffry
- The Public Good Projects Alexandria Estados Unidos de América The Public Good Projects, Alexandria, Estados Unidos de América
| | - Sarah D Rosenberg
- The Public Good Projects Alexandria Estados Unidos de América The Public Good Projects, Alexandria, Estados Unidos de América
| | - Ellen Wartella
- Northwestern School of Communication Evanston Estados Unidos de América Northwestern School of Communication, Evanston, Estados Unidos de América
| | - Joe Smyser
- The Public Good Projects Alexandria Estados Unidos de América The Public Good Projects, Alexandria, Estados Unidos de América
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Xiang X, Lu X, Halavanau A, Xue J, Sun Y, Lai PHL, Wu Z. Modern Senicide in the Face of a Pandemic: An Examination of Public Discourse and Sentiment About Older Adults and COVID-19 Using Machine Learning. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2021; 76:e190-e200. [PMID: 32785620 PMCID: PMC7454882 DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbaa128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2020] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Objectives This study examined public discourse and sentiment regarding older adults and COVID-19 on social media and assessed the extent of ageism in public discourse. Methods Twitter data (N=82,893) related to both older adults and COVID-19 and dated from January 23 to May 20, 2020, were analyzed. We used a combination of data science methods (including Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count, supervised machine learning, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis), qualitative thematic analysis, and conventional statistics. Results The most common category in the coded tweets was “personal opinions” (66.2%), followed by “informative” (24.7%), “jokes/ridicule” (4.8%), and “personal experiences” (4.3%). The daily average of ageist content was 18%, with the highest of 52.8% on March 11, 2020. Specifically, more than one in ten (11.5%) tweets implied that the life of older adults is less valuable or downplayed the pandemic because it mostly harms older adults. A small proportion (4.6%) explicitly supported the idea of just isolating older adults. Almost three-quarters (72.9%) within “jokes/ridicule” targeted older adults, half of which were “death jokes.” Also, 14 themes were extracted, such as perceptions of lockdown and risk. A bivariate Granger causality test suggested that informative tweets regarding at-risk populations increased the prevalence of tweets that downplayed the pandemic. Discussion Ageist content in the context of COVID-19 was prevalent on Twitter. Information about COVID-19 on Twitter influenced public perceptions of risk and acceptable ways of controlling the pandemic. Public education on the risk of severe illness is needed to correct misperceptions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoling Xiang
- School of Social Work, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
| | - Xuan Lu
- School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
| | - Alex Halavanau
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California
| | - Jia Xue
- Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Yihang Sun
- School of Social Work, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
| | | | - Zhenke Wu
- School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
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Talbot CV, O'Dwyer ST, Clare L, Heaton J. The use of Twitter by people with young-onset dementia: A qualitative analysis of narratives and identity formation in the age of social media. DEMENTIA 2021; 20:2542-2557. [PMID: 33765848 PMCID: PMC8564236 DOI: 10.1177/14713012211002410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
A diagnosis of dementia in midlife can be challenging, causing losses or changes in a
person’s identity. Narrative provides a means of reconstructing identity and can be
communicated on social media. There has been initial evidence on the value of Twitter for
people with dementia, but researchers have not yet directly engaged with users’
perspectives. We employed a narrative model of identity to examine why people with
dementia use Twitter and what challenges they face. Interviews were conducted with 11
younger people with dementia and analysed thematically. Participants used Twitter to
counter a loss of identity through community membership and by regaining a sense of
purpose. They sought to redefine dementia identities by challenging stigma and campaigning
for social change. The character limit of tweets facilitated narrative through which
participants preserved their identities. These findings suggest that Twitter could be an
important source of post-diagnostic support for people with young-onset dementia. However,
there are some risks as Twitter was sometimes a hostile environment for individuals who
did not present in a ‘typical’ manner, or faced technical difficulties because of their
symptoms. In the future, platform developers could work with people with dementia to make
Twitter more accessible for this group.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Linda Clare
- College of Medicine and Health, 171002University of Exeter, UK
| | - Janet Heaton
- Division of Rural Health and Wellbeing, 7709University of the Highlands and Islands, UK
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Chen Y, Wu J, Ma J, Zhu H, Li W, Gan Y. The mediating effect of media usage on the relationship between anxiety/fear and physician-patient trust during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychol Health 2021; 37:847-866. [PMID: 33754897 DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2021.1900573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Our study explored whether and how media usage can mediate the path from anxiety and fear to physician-patient trust. DESIGN Study 1 was a population-based, longitudinal study using nationally representative data from 29 provinces in mainland China. The baseline sample (N = 3233) was obtained from February 1 to 9, 2020. Follow-up (N = 1380) took place during March 17 to 24, 2020. Study 2 was a machine learning-based sentiment analysis in which data were captured from Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website, among the most popular official, unofficial, and health-related media accounts. The screened blogs from November to December 2019 and February to March 2020 were scored by Google APIs for positivity and magnitude. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Physician-patient trust. RESULTS Study 1 showed fear and anxiety affected changes in physician-patient trust through media usage, the indirect effect of which was 0.14 (0.03) and the 95% CI was [0.08, 0.19]. Study 2 indicated a more positive image of physicians after the outbreak compared to before [F (2, 3537) = 3.646, p = 0.026, partial η2=0.002]. CONCLUSION The negative impact of anxiety and fear on physician-patient trust was mediated by media use, which can be explained by the more positive media image during the pandemic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yidi Chen
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Jianhui Wu
- School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, People's Republic of China
| | - Jinjin Ma
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Huanya Zhu
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Wenju Li
- National Center of Gerontology, Beijing Hospital, Beijing, China
| | - Yiqun Gan
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
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Shumaly S, Yazdinejad M, Guo Y. Persian sentiment analysis of an online store independent of pre-processing using convolutional neural network with fastText embeddings. PeerJ Comput Sci 2021; 7:e422. [PMID: 33817057 PMCID: PMC7959661 DOI: 10.7717/peerj-cs.422] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2020] [Accepted: 02/10/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Sentiment analysis plays a key role in companies, especially stores, and increasing the accuracy in determining customers' opinions about products assists to maintain their competitive conditions. We intend to analyze the users' opinions on the website of the most immense online store in Iran; Digikala. However, the Persian language is unstructured which makes the pre-processing stage very difficult and it is the main problem of sentiment analysis in Persian. What exacerbates this problem is the lack of available libraries for Persian pre-processing, while most libraries focus on English. To tackle this, approximately 3 million reviews were gathered in Persian from the Digikala website using web-mining techniques, and the fastText method was used to create a word embedding. It was assumed that this would dramatically cut down on the need for text pre-processing through the skip-gram method considering the position of the words in the sentence and the words' relations to each other. Another word embedding has been created using the TF-IDF in parallel with fastText to compare their performance. In addition, the results of the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), BiLSTM, Logistic Regression, and Naïve Bayes models have been compared. As a significant result, we obtained 0.996 AUC and 0.956 F-score using fastText and CNN. In this article, not only has it been demonstrated to what extent it is possible to be independent of pre-processing but also the accuracy obtained is better than other researches done in Persian. Avoiding complex text preprocessing is also important for other languages since most text preprocessing algorithms have been developed for English and cannot be used for other languages. The created word embedding due to its high accuracy and independence of pre-processing has other applications in Persian besides sentiment analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sajjad Shumaly
- Industrial Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
| | | | - Yanhui Guo
- Computer Science, University of Illinois at Springfield, Springfield, IL, USA
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Bonnevie E, Gallegos-Jeffrey A, Goldbarg J, Byrd B, Smyser J. Quantifying the rise of vaccine opposition on Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2020. [DOI: 10.1080/17538068.2020.1858222] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Brian Byrd
- New York State Health Foundation, New York, NY, USA
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Low LF, Purwaningrum F. Negative stereotypes, fear and social distance: a systematic review of depictions of dementia in popular culture in the context of stigma. BMC Geriatr 2020; 20:477. [PMID: 33203379 PMCID: PMC7670593 DOI: 10.1186/s12877-020-01754-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2019] [Accepted: 09/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Literature, film and news media reflect and shape social perceptions of dementia which in turn impact on dementia stigma. The aim of this paper is to systematically review papers on the depiction and frames for dementia in literature, film, mass media and social media in order to better understand cultural stigma related to dementia. METHODS A systematic search of electronic databases was undertaken combining phrases relating to dementia, popular culture and representations, and phrases relating to dementia and stigma. We searched for scientific English language papers which included original analysis on the representation or depiction of dementia in popular culture (i.e. in film and television, literature, news, social media and language). Articles published between 1989-2018 were included. The search was conducted in December 2017 and updated in January 2019. Inductive thematic synthesis was undertaken. RESULTS A total of 60 articles were included from an initial sample of 37022. Dementia was almost always depicted in conjunction with ageing, and often equated with Alzheimer's disease. Common frames for dementia were biomedical - dementia involves the deterioration of the brain for which there is no current cure; natural disaster or epidemic - dementia is a force of nature which will overwhelm mankind; and living dead - people with dementia lose their brains, memories, minds and consequently their personhood and human rights. There were examples of more positive depictions of dementia including expressing love and individual agency and experiencing personal growth. Feelings commonly associated with dementia were fear, shame, compassion and guilt, and depictions often resulted in a sense of social distance. CONCLUSIONS Depictions of dementia in popular culture are associated with negative images and feelings, and social distance between people with dementia and those without. These correspond to dementia stigma in the public and as experienced by people with dementia. Further research is needed into the impact of literature, news and social media on dementia stigma and these cultural mediums might be used to reduce stigma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lee-Fay Low
- The University of Sydney, Faculty of Health Sciences, Room M3909B, M Block, 75 East Street, Lidcombe, NSW, 2141, Australia
| | - Farah Purwaningrum
- The University of Sydney, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Room 424 Old Teachers College, Manning Road, Lidcombe, Australia.
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Bonnevie E, Goldbarg J, Gallegos-Jeffrey AK, Rosenberg SD, Wartella E, Smyser J. Content Themes and Influential Voices Within Vaccine Opposition on Twitter, 2019. Am J Public Health 2020; 110:S326-S330. [PMID: 33001733 DOI: 10.2105/ajph.2020.305901] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Objectives. To report on vaccine opposition and misinformation promoted on Twitter, highlighting Twitter accounts that drive conversation.Methods. We used supervised machine learning to code all Twitter posts. We first identified codes and themes manually by using a grounded theoretical approach and then applied them to the full data set algorithmically. We identified the top 50 authors month-over-month to determine influential sources of information related to vaccine opposition.Results. The data collection period was June 1 to December 1, 2019, resulting in 356 594 mentions of vaccine opposition. A total of 129 Twitter authors met the qualification of a top author in at least 1 month. Top authors were responsible for 59.5% of vaccine-opposition messages. We identified 10 conversation themes. Themes were similarly distributed across top authors and all other authors mentioning vaccine opposition. Top authors appeared to be highly coordinated in their promotion of misinformation within themes.Conclusions. Public health has struggled to respond to vaccine misinformation. Results indicate that sources of vaccine misinformation are not as heterogeneous or distributed as it may first appear given the volume of messages. There are identifiable upstream sources of misinformation, which may aid in countermessaging and public health surveillance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erika Bonnevie
- Erika Bonnevie, Jaclyn Goldbarg, Allison K. Gallegos-Jeffrey, Sarah D. Rosenberg, and Joe Smyser were with The Public Good Projects, Alexandria, VA, at the time the work was conducted. Ellen Wartella is with The Northwestern School of Communication, Evanston, IL
| | - Jaclyn Goldbarg
- Erika Bonnevie, Jaclyn Goldbarg, Allison K. Gallegos-Jeffrey, Sarah D. Rosenberg, and Joe Smyser were with The Public Good Projects, Alexandria, VA, at the time the work was conducted. Ellen Wartella is with The Northwestern School of Communication, Evanston, IL
| | - Allison K Gallegos-Jeffrey
- Erika Bonnevie, Jaclyn Goldbarg, Allison K. Gallegos-Jeffrey, Sarah D. Rosenberg, and Joe Smyser were with The Public Good Projects, Alexandria, VA, at the time the work was conducted. Ellen Wartella is with The Northwestern School of Communication, Evanston, IL
| | - Sarah D Rosenberg
- Erika Bonnevie, Jaclyn Goldbarg, Allison K. Gallegos-Jeffrey, Sarah D. Rosenberg, and Joe Smyser were with The Public Good Projects, Alexandria, VA, at the time the work was conducted. Ellen Wartella is with The Northwestern School of Communication, Evanston, IL
| | - Ellen Wartella
- Erika Bonnevie, Jaclyn Goldbarg, Allison K. Gallegos-Jeffrey, Sarah D. Rosenberg, and Joe Smyser were with The Public Good Projects, Alexandria, VA, at the time the work was conducted. Ellen Wartella is with The Northwestern School of Communication, Evanston, IL
| | - Joe Smyser
- Erika Bonnevie, Jaclyn Goldbarg, Allison K. Gallegos-Jeffrey, Sarah D. Rosenberg, and Joe Smyser were with The Public Good Projects, Alexandria, VA, at the time the work was conducted. Ellen Wartella is with The Northwestern School of Communication, Evanston, IL
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Qin FY, Lv ZQ, Wang DN, Hu B, Wu C. Health status prediction for the elderly based on machine learning. Arch Gerontol Geriatr 2020; 90:104121. [DOI: 10.1016/j.archger.2020.104121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2020] [Revised: 03/25/2020] [Accepted: 04/20/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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Jimenez-Sotomayor MR, Gomez-Moreno C, Soto-Perez-de-Celis E. Coronavirus, Ageism, and Twitter: An Evaluation of Tweets about Older Adults and COVID-19. J Am Geriatr Soc 2020; 68:1661-1665. [PMID: 32338787 PMCID: PMC7267430 DOI: 10.1111/jgs.16508] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 25.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2020] [Revised: 04/15/2020] [Accepted: 04/16/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) a pandemic. High morbidity and mortality rates of COVID‐19 have been observed among older adults and widely reported in both mainstream and social media. The objective of this study was to analyze tweets related to COVID‐19 and older adults, and to identify ageist content. DESIGN We obtained a representative sample of original tweets containing the keywords “elderly,” “older,” and/or “boomer” plus the hashtags “#COVID19” and/or “#coronavirus.” SETTING Tweets posted between March 12 and March 21, 2020. MEASUREMENTS We identified the type of user and number of followers for each account. Tweets were classified by three raters as (1) informative, (2) personal accounts, (3) personal opinions, (4) advice seeking, (5) jokes, and (6) miscellaneous. Potentially offensive content, as well as that downplaying the severity of COVID‐19 because it mostly affects older adults, was identified. RESULTS A total of 18,128 tweets were obtained, of which a random sample of 351 was analyzed. Most accounts (91.7%) belonged to individuals. The most common types of tweets were personal opinions (31.9%), followed by informative tweets (29.6%), jokes/ridicule (14.3%), and personal accounts (13.4%). Overall, 72 tweets (21.9%) likely intended to ridicule or offend someone and 21.1% had content implying that the life of older adults was less valuable or downplayed the relevance of COVID‐19. CONCLUSION Most tweets related to COVID‐19 and older adults contained personal opinions, personal accounts, and jokes. Almost one‐quarter of analyzed tweets had ageist or potentially offensive content toward older adults. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:1661‐1665, 2020.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Carolina Gomez-Moreno
- Department of Geriatrics, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Tlalpan, Mexico
| | - Enrique Soto-Perez-de-Celis
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Tlalpan, Mexico
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Pilozzi A, Huang X. Overcoming Alzheimer's Disease Stigma by Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Technologies. Brain Sci 2020; 10:E183. [PMID: 32210011 PMCID: PMC7139597 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci10030183] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2020] [Revised: 03/11/2020] [Accepted: 03/20/2020] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) imposes a considerable burden on those diagnosed. Faced with a neurodegenerative decline for which there is no effective cure or prevention method, sufferers of the disease are subject to judgement, both self-imposed and otherwise, that can have a great deal of effect on their lives. The burden of this stigma is more than just psychological, as reluctance to face an AD diagnosis can lead people to avoid early diagnosis, treatment, and research opportunities that may be beneficial to them, and that may help progress towards fighting AD and its progression. In this review, we discuss how recent advents in information technology may be employed to help fight this stigma. Using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, specifically natural language processing (NLP), to classify the sentiment and tone of texts, such as those of online posts on various social media sites, has proven to be an effective tool for assessing the opinions of the general public on certain topics. These tools can be used to analyze the public stigma surrounding AD. Additionally, there is much concern among individuals that an AD diagnosis, or evidence of pre-clinical AD such as a biomarker or imaging test results, may wind up unintentionally disclosed to an entity that may discriminate against them. The lackluster security record of many medical institutions justifies this fear to an extent. Adopting more secure and decentralized methods of data transfer and storage, and giving patients enhanced ability to control their own data, such as a blockchain-based method, may help to alleviate some of these fears.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Xudong Huang
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA;
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Zunic A, Corcoran P, Spasic I. Sentiment Analysis in Health and Well-Being: Systematic Review. JMIR Med Inform 2020; 8:e16023. [PMID: 32012057 PMCID: PMC7013658 DOI: 10.2196/16023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2019] [Revised: 10/26/2019] [Accepted: 10/27/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Sentiment analysis (SA) is a subfield of natural language processing whose aim is to automatically classify the sentiment expressed in a free text. It has found practical applications across a wide range of societal contexts including marketing, economy, and politics. This review focuses specifically on applications related to health, which is defined as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Objective This study aimed to establish the state of the art in SA related to health and well-being by conducting a systematic review of the recent literature. To capture the perspective of those individuals whose health and well-being are affected, we focused specifically on spontaneously generated content and not necessarily that of health care professionals. Methods Our methodology is based on the guidelines for performing systematic reviews. In January 2019, we used PubMed, a multifaceted interface, to perform a literature search against MEDLINE. We identified a total of 86 relevant studies and extracted data about the datasets analyzed, discourse topics, data creators, downstream applications, algorithms used, and their evaluation. Results The majority of data were collected from social networking and Web-based retailing platforms. The primary purpose of online conversations is to exchange information and provide social support online. These communities tend to form around health conditions with high severity and chronicity rates. Different treatments and services discussed include medications, vaccination, surgery, orthodontic services, individual physicians, and health care services in general. We identified 5 roles with respect to health and well-being among the authors of the types of spontaneously generated narratives considered in this review: a sufferer, an addict, a patient, a carer, and a suicide victim. Out of 86 studies considered, only 4 reported the demographic characteristics. A wide range of methods were used to perform SA. Most common choices included support vector machines, naïve Bayesian learning, decision trees, logistic regression, and adaptive boosting. In contrast with general trends in SA research, only 1 study used deep learning. The performance lags behind the state of the art achieved in other domains when measured by F-score, which was found to be below 60% on average. In the context of SA, the domain of health and well-being was found to be resource poor: few domain-specific corpora and lexica are shared publicly for research purposes. Conclusions SA results in the area of health and well-being lag behind those in other domains. It is yet unclear if this is because of the intrinsic differences between the domains and their respective sublanguages, the size of training datasets, the lack of domain-specific sentiment lexica, or the choice of algorithms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anastazia Zunic
- School of Computer Science & Informatics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
| | - Padraig Corcoran
- School of Computer Science & Informatics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
| | - Irena Spasic
- School of Computer Science & Informatics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
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Paek HJ, Baek H, Lee S, Hove T. Electronic Cigarette Themes on Twitter: Dissemination Patterns and Relations with Online News and Search Engine Queries in South Korea. HEALTH COMMUNICATION 2020; 35:1-9. [PMID: 30372161 DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2018.1536952] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
This study examines multiple aspects of e-cigarette mentions on different online media channels during the announcement and implementation of a cigarette tax increase policy in South Korea. It consists of three parts. First, a Naive Bayes classifier was used to sort 59,147 tweets about e-cigarettes into five pre-designated themes - promotion, health, policy, product evaluation, and price - and to determine their relative prevalence. Second, social network analysis was used to identify the themes' dissemination patterns. Third, the themes were examined for their associations with e-cigarette mentions in two other media channels - online news articles (n = 580) and search engine queries (64 weeks of Google Trends data). Results show that the most prevalent tweet theme was product evaluation, and the theme with the largest increase during the data collection period was promotion. Promotion-themed tweets were the least connected with tweets about the other five themes, while health-themed tweets were the most connected. Finally, product evaluation-themed tweets exhibited the strongest correlation with search engine query count and had the largest explanatory power.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hye-Jin Paek
- Department of Advertising & Public Relations, Hanyang University
| | - Hyunmi Baek
- School of Media and Communication, Korea University
| | - Saerom Lee
- School of Business Administration, Kyungpook National University
| | - Thomas Hove
- Department of Advertising & Public Relations, Hanyang University
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He L, Zheng K. How Do General-Purpose Sentiment Analyzers Perform when Applied to Health-Related Online Social Media Data? Stud Health Technol Inform 2019; 264:1208-1212. [PMID: 31438117 DOI: 10.3233/shti190418] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Sentiment analysis has been increasingly used to analyze online social media data such as tweets and health forum posts. However, previous studies often adopted existing, general-purpose sentiment analyzers developed in non-healthcare domains, without assessing their validity and without customizing them for the specific study context. In this work, we empirically evaluated three general-purpose sentiment analyzers popularly used in previous studies (Stanford Core NLP Sentiment Analysis, TextBlob, and VADER), based on two online health datasets and a general-purpose dataset as the baseline. We illustrate that none of these general-purpose sentiment analyzers were able to produce satisfactory classifications of sentiment polarity. Further, these sentiment analyzers generated inconsistent results when applied to the same dataset, and their performance varies to a great extent across the two health datasets. Significant future work is therefore needed to develop context-specific sentiment analysis tools for analyzing online health data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lu He
- Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, City Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Kai Zheng
- Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, City Irvine, CA, USA
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Weber CT, Syed S. Interdisciplinary optimism? Sentiment analysis of Twitter data. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2019; 6:190473. [PMID: 31417745 PMCID: PMC6689644 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.190473] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2019] [Accepted: 06/21/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Interdisciplinary research has faced many challenges, including institutional, cultural and practical ones, while it has also been reported as a 'career risk' and even 'career suicide' for researchers pursuing such an education and approach. Yet, the propagation of challenges and risks can easily lead to a feeling of anxiety and disempowerment in researchers, which we think is counterproductive to improving interdisciplinarity in practice. Therefore, in the search of 'bright spots', which are examples of cases in which people have had positive experiences with interdisciplinarity, this study assesses the perceptions of researchers on interdisciplinarity on the social media platform Twitter. The results of this study show researchers' many positive experiences and successes of interdisciplinarity, and, as such, document examples of bright spots. These bright spots can give reason for optimistic thinking, which can potentially have many benefits for researchers' well-being, creativity and innovation, and may also inspire and empower researchers to strive for and pursue interdisciplinarity in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte Teresa Weber
- Norwegian College of Fishery Science, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Shaheen Syed
- Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Yin Z, Sulieman LM, Malin BA. A systematic literature review of machine learning in online personal health data. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2019; 26:561-576. [PMID: 30908576 PMCID: PMC7647332 DOI: 10.1093/jamia/ocz009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2018] [Revised: 01/06/2019] [Accepted: 01/11/2019] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE User-generated content (UGC) in online environments provides opportunities to learn an individual's health status outside of clinical settings. However, the nature of UGC brings challenges in both data collecting and processing. The purpose of this study is to systematically review the effectiveness of applying machine learning (ML) methodologies to UGC for personal health investigations. MATERIALS AND METHODS We searched PubMed, Web of Science, IEEE Library, ACM library, AAAI library, and the ACL anthology. We focused on research articles that were published in English and in peer-reviewed journals or conference proceedings between 2010 and 2018. Publications that applied ML to UGC with a focus on personal health were identified for further systematic review. RESULTS We identified 103 eligible studies which we summarized with respect to 5 research categories, 3 data collection strategies, 3 gold standard dataset creation methods, and 4 types of features applied in ML models. Popular off-the-shelf ML models were logistic regression (n = 22), support vector machines (n = 18), naive Bayes (n = 17), ensemble learning (n = 12), and deep learning (n = 11). The most investigated problems were mental health (n = 39) and cancer (n = 15). Common health-related aspects extracted from UGC were treatment experience, sentiments and emotions, coping strategies, and social support. CONCLUSIONS The systematic review indicated that ML can be effectively applied to UGC in facilitating the description and inference of personal health. Future research needs to focus on mitigating bias introduced when building study cohorts, creating features from free text, improving clinical creditability of UGC, and model interpretability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhijun Yin
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Lina M Sulieman
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Bradley A Malin
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
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Walker T, Palermo C, Klassen K. Considering the Impact of Social Media on Contemporary Improvement of Australian Aboriginal Health: Scoping Review. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2019; 5:e11573. [PMID: 30720442 PMCID: PMC6379811 DOI: 10.2196/11573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2018] [Revised: 10/18/2018] [Accepted: 10/23/2018] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Social media may have a significant role in influencing the present and future health implications among Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, yet there has been no review of the role of social media in improving health. OBJECTIVE This study aims to examine the extent of health initiatives using social media that aimed to improve the health of Australian Aboriginal communities. METHODS A scoping review was conducted by systematically searching databases CINAHL Plus; PubMed; Scopus; Web of Science, and Ovid MEDLINE in June 2017 using the terms and their synonyms "Aboriginal" and "Social media." In addition, reference lists of included studies and the Indigenous HealthInfonet gray literature were searched. Key information about the social media intervention and its impacts on health were extracted and data synthesized using narrative summaries. RESULTS Five papers met inclusion criteria. All included studies were published in the past 5 years and involved urban, rural, and remote Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people aged 12-60 years. No studies reported objective impacts on health. Three papers found that social media provided greater space for sharing health messages in a 2-way exchange. The negative portrayal of Aboriginal people and negative health impacts of social media were described in 2 papers. CONCLUSIONS Social media may be a useful strategy to provide health messages and sharing of content among Aboriginal people, but objective impacts on health remain unknown. More research is necessary on social media as a way to connect, communicate, and improve Aboriginal health with particular emphasis on community control, self-empowerment, and decolonization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Troy Walker
- Be Active Sleep Eat, Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food, Monash University, Notting Hill, Australia
| | - Claire Palermo
- Be Active Sleep Eat, Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food, Monash University, Notting Hill, Australia
| | - Karen Klassen
- Be Active Sleep Eat, Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food, Monash University, Notting Hill, Australia
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Cheng TYM, Liu L, Woo BK. Analyzing Twitter as a Platform for Alzheimer-Related Dementia Awareness: Thematic Analyses of Tweets. JMIR Aging 2018; 1:e11542. [PMID: 31518232 PMCID: PMC6715397 DOI: 10.2196/11542] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2018] [Revised: 11/13/2018] [Accepted: 11/19/2018] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Dementia is a prevalent disorder among adults and often subjects an individual and his or her family. Social media websites may serve as a platform to raise awareness for dementia and allow researchers to explore health-related data. Objective The objective of this study was to utilize Twitter, a social media website, to examine the content and location of tweets containing the keyword “dementia” to better understand the reasons why individuals discuss dementia. We adopted an approach that analyzed user location, user category, and tweet content subcategories to classify large publicly available datasets. Methods A total of 398 tweets were collected using the Twitter search application programming interface with the keyword “dementia,” circulated between January and February 2018. Twitter users were categorized into 4 categories: general public, health care field, advocacy organization, and public broadcasting. Tweets posted by “general public” users were further subcategorized into 5 categories: mental health advocate, affected persons, stigmatization, marketing, and other. Placement into the categories was done through thematic analysis. Results A total of 398 tweets were written by 359 different screen names from 28 different countries. The largest number of Twitter users were from the United States and the United Kingdom. Within the United States, the largest number of users were from California and Texas. The majority (281/398, 70.6%) of Twitter users were categorized into the “general public” category. Content analysis of tweets from the “general public” category revealed stigmatization (113/281, 40.2%) and mental health advocacy (102/281, 36.3%) as the most common themes. Among tweets from California and Texas, California had more stigmatization tweets, while Texas had more mental health advocacy tweets. Conclusions Themes from the content of tweets highlight the mixture of the political climate and the supportive network present on Twitter. The ability to use Twitter to combat stigma and raise awareness of mental health indicates the benefits that can potentially be facilitated via the platform, but negative stigmatizing tweets may interfere with the effectiveness of this social support.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lisa Liu
- University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Benjamin Kp Woo
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
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Walsh EI, Busby Grant J. Detecting Temporal Cognition in Text: Comparison of Judgements by Self, Expert and Machine. Front Psychol 2018; 9:2037. [PMID: 30416468 PMCID: PMC6212561 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2018] [Accepted: 10/03/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: There is a growing research focus on temporal cognition, due to its importance in memory and planning, and links with psychological wellbeing. Researchers are increasingly using diary studies, experience sampling and social media data to study temporal thought. However, it remains unclear whether such reports can be accurately interpreted for temporal orientation. In this study, temporal orientation judgements about text reports of thoughts were compared across human coding, automatic text mining, and participant self-report. Methods: 214 participants responded to randomly timed text message prompts, categorically reporting the temporal direction of their thoughts and describing the content of their thoughts, producing a corpus of 2505 brief (1–358, M = 43 characters) descriptions. Two researchers independently, blindly coded temporal orientation of the descriptions. Four approaches to automated coding used tense to establish temporal category for each description. Concordance between temporal orientation assessments by self-report, human coding, and automatic text mining was evaluated. Results: Human coding more closely matched self-reported coding than automated methods. Accuracy for human (79.93% correct) and automated (57.44% correct) coding was diminished when multiple guesses at ambiguous temporal categories (ties) were allowed in coding (reduction to 74.95% correct for human, 49.05% automated). Conclusion: Ambiguous tense poses a challenge for both human and automated coding protocols that attempt to infer temporal orientation from text describing momentary thought. While methods can be applied to minimize bias, this study demonstrates that researchers need to be wary about attributing temporal orientation to text-reported thought processes, and emphasize the importance of eliciting self-reported judgements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin I Walsh
- Centre for Research on Ageing, Health & Wellbeing, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Janie Busby Grant
- Centre for Applied Psychology, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, Australia
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Talbot C, O’Dwyer S, Clare L, Heaton J, Anderson J. Identifying people with dementia on Twitter. DEMENTIA 2018; 19:965-974. [DOI: 10.1177/1471301218792122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
There is a growing body of research on the use of Twitter by people with health conditions, but it does not include people with dementia. In this brief report, we aim to: (1) determine whether people with dementia are using Twitter; (2) provide an estimate of the number of Twitter account holders who identify as having a diagnosis of dementia; and (3) examine the demographic characteristics of these account holders. Tweetcatcher was used to identify tweets containing the search terms ‘dementia’ or ‘Alzheimer’. These data were systematically searched to locate account holders who identified themselves as having a diagnosis of dementia, and a content analysis was conducted of these account holders’ profiles. Thirty account holders self-identified as having a diagnosis of dementia. The average age of account holders was 59 years and the majority were located in North America or the UK. Although the majority of account holders reported having Alzheimer’s disease or did not specify a type of dementia, some rare forms of dementia were also evident. The sample consisted of relatively young account holders and contained more men, which might suggest that other groups are under-represented on Twitter. The majority of account holders considered themselves a dementia activist or were affiliated with a dementia organisation. The findings suggest that people with dementia, with varying demographic characteristics and a range of diagnoses, are active on Twitter. These account holders are more frequently male, relatively young, and dementia activists.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine Talbot
- University of Exeter Medical School, UK; Centre for Research in Ageing and Cognitive Health (REACH), University of Exeter, UK
| | - Siobhan O’Dwyer
- University of Exeter Medical School, UK; Centre for Research in Ageing and Cognitive Health (REACH), University of Exeter, UK; Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Australia; PenCLAHRC, Institute of Health Research, University of Exeter Medical School, UK
| | - Linda Clare
- Centre for Research in Ageing and Cognitive Health (REACH), University of Exeter, UK; PenCLAHRC, Institute of Health Research, University of Exeter Medical School, UK; Alzheimer’s Society Centre of Excellence, University of Exeter, UK
| | - Janet Heaton
- Department of Rural Health and Wellbeing, School of Health, University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland
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Ganguli M, Albanese E, Seshadri S, Bennett DA, Lyketsos C, Kukull WA, Skoog I, Hendrie HC. Population Neuroscience: Dementia Epidemiology Serving Precision Medicine and Population Health. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 2018; 32:1-9. [PMID: 29319603 PMCID: PMC5821530 DOI: 10.1097/wad.0000000000000237] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Over recent decades, epidemiology has made significant contributions to our understanding of dementia, translating scientific discoveries into population health. Here, we propose reframing dementia epidemiology as "population neuroscience," blending techniques and models from contemporary neuroscience with those of epidemiology and biostatistics. On the basis of emerging evidence and newer paradigms and methods, population neuroscience will minimize the bias typical of traditional clinical research, identify the relatively homogenous subgroups that comprise the general population, and investigate broader and denser phenotypes of dementia and cognitive impairment. Long-term follow-up of sufficiently large study cohorts will allow the identification of cohort effects and critical windows of exposure. Molecular epidemiology and omics will allow us to unravel the key distinctions within and among subgroups and better understand individuals' risk profiles. Interventional epidemiology will allow us to identify the different subgroups that respond to different treatment/prevention strategies. These strategies will inform precision medicine. In addition, insights into interactions between disease biology, personal and environmental factors, and social determinants of health will allow us to measure and track disease in communities and improve population health. By placing neuroscience within a real-world context, population neuroscience can fulfill its potential to serve both precision medicine and population health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mary Ganguli
- Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology, School of Medicine and Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
| | | | | | - David A Bennett
- Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL
| | - Constantine Lyketsos
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
| | - Walter A Kukull
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
| | - Ingmar Skoog
- Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Gothenburg University, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Hugh C Hendrie
- Regenstrief Institute Inc., Indiana University Center for Aging Research, Indianapolis, IN
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Larkin A, Hystad P. Towards Personal Exposures: How Technology Is Changing Air Pollution and Health Research. Curr Environ Health Rep 2017; 4:463-471. [PMID: 28983874 PMCID: PMC5677549 DOI: 10.1007/s40572-017-0163-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW We present a review of emerging technologies and how these can transform personal air pollution exposure assessment and subsequent health research. RECENT FINDINGS Estimating personal air pollution exposures is currently split broadly into methods for modeling exposures for large populations versus measuring exposures for small populations. Air pollution sensors, smartphones, and air pollution models capitalizing on big/new data sources offer tremendous opportunity for unifying these approaches and improving long-term personal exposure prediction at scales needed for population-based research. A multi-disciplinary approach is needed to combine these technologies to not only estimate personal exposures for epidemiological research but also determine drivers of these exposures and new prevention opportunities. While available technologies can revolutionize air pollution exposure research, ethical, privacy, logistical, and data science challenges must be met before widespread implementations occur. Available technologies and related advances in data science can improve long-term personal air pollution exposure estimates at scales needed for population-based research. This will advance our ability to evaluate the impacts of air pollution on human health and develop effective prevention strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Larkin
- College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University, Milam 20A, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA
| | - P Hystad
- College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University, Milam 20C, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA.
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