Sadah Shouq A, Shahbazi Moloud, Wiley Matthew T, Hristidis Vagelis
University of California, Riverside, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Riverside, CA, United States.
J Med Internet Res. 2016 Jun 13;18(6):e148. doi: 10.2196/jmir.5327.
An increasing number of patients from diverse demographic groups share and search for health-related information on Web-based social media. However, little is known about the content of the posted information with respect to the users' demographics.
The aims of this study were to analyze the content of Web-based health-related social media based on users' demographics to identify which health topics are discussed in which social media by which demographic groups and to help guide educational and research activities.
We analyze 3 different types of health-related social media: (1) general Web-based social networks Twitter and Google+; (2) drug review websites; and (3) health Web forums, with a total of about 6 million users and 20 million posts. We analyzed the content of these posts based on the demographic group of their authors, in terms of sentiment and emotion, top distinctive terms, and top medical concepts.
The results of this study are: (1) Pregnancy is the dominant topic for female users in drug review websites and health Web forums, whereas for male users, it is cardiac problems, HIV, and back pain, but this is not the case for Twitter; (2) younger users (0-17 years) mainly talk about attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression-related drugs, users aged 35-44 years discuss about multiple sclerosis (MS) drugs, and middle-aged users (45-64 years) talk about alcohol and smoking; (3) users from the Northeast United States talk about physical disorders, whereas users from the West United States talk about mental disorders and addictive behaviors; (4) Users with higher writing level express less anger in their posts.
We studied the popular topics and the sentiment based on users' demographics in Web-based health-related social media. Our results provide valuable information, which can help create targeted and effective educational campaigns and guide experts to reach the right users on Web-based social chatter.
越来越多来自不同人口统计学群体的患者在基于网络的社交媒体上分享和搜索与健康相关的信息。然而，关于所发布信息的内容与用户人口统计学特征之间的关系，我们却知之甚少。
本研究的目的是根据用户的人口统计学特征分析基于网络的健康相关社交媒体的内容，以确定哪些人口统计学群体在哪些社交媒体上讨论了哪些健康话题，并为教育和研究活动提供指导。
我们分析了3种不同类型的健康相关社交媒体：（1）基于网络的一般社交网络推特和谷歌+；（2）药品评论网站；（3）健康网络论坛，共有约600万用户和2000万条帖子。我们根据帖子作者的人口统计学群体，从情感和情绪、最具特色的词汇以及最主要的医学概念等方面分析了这些帖子的内容。
本研究的结果如下：（1）在药品评论网站和健康网络论坛中，怀孕是女性用户的主要话题，而男性用户的主要话题是心脏问题、艾滋病毒和背痛，但推特上并非如此；（2）年轻用户（0 - 17岁）主要谈论注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）和与抑郁症相关的药物，35 - 44岁的用户讨论多发性硬化症（MS）药物，中年用户（45 - 64岁）谈论酒精和吸烟；（3）美国东北部的用户谈论身体疾病，而美国西部的用户谈论精神疾病和成瘾行为；（4）写作水平较高的用户在帖子中表达的愤怒较少。
我们研究了基于网络的健康相关社交媒体中基于用户人口统计学特征的热门话题和情感倾向。我们的结果提供了有价值的信息，有助于开展有针对性的有效教育活动，并指导专家在基于网络的社交交流中找到合适的用户。
