Park So Hyun, Hong Song Hee
Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic Of Korea.
Korea Institute of Drug Safety and Risk Management, Drug Safety Information Office of Adverse Drug Reaction Relief, Anyang, Republic Of Korea.
J Med Internet Res. 2018 Oct 24;20(10):e11085. doi: 10.2196/11085.
Patients with hypothyroidism report poor health-related quality of life despite having undergone thyroid hormone replacement therapy (THRT). Understanding patient concerns regarding levothyroxine can help improve the treatment outcomes of THRT.
This study aimed to (1) identify the distinctive themes in patient concerns regarding THRT, (2) determine whether patients have unique primary medication concerns specific to their demographics, and (3) determine the predictability of primary medication concerns on patient treatment satisfaction.
We collected patient reviews from WebMD in the United States (1037 reviews about generic levothyroxine and 1075 reviews about the brand version) posted between September 1, 2007, and January 30, 2017. We used natural language processing to identify the themes of medication concerns. Multiple regression analyses were conducted in order to examine the predictability of the primary medication concerns on patient treatment satisfaction.
Natural language processing of the patient reviews of levothyroxine posted on a social networking site produced 6 distinctive themes of patient medication concerns related to levothyroxine treatment: how to take the drug, treatment initiation, dose adjustment, symptoms of pain, generic substitutability, and appearance. Patients had different primary medication concerns unique to their gender, age, and treatment duration. Furthermore, treatment satisfaction on levothyroxine depended on what primary medication concerns the patient had.
Natural language processing of text content available on social media could identify different themes of patient medication concerns that can be validated in future studies to inform the design of tailored medication counseling for improved patient treatment satisfaction.
尽管接受了甲状腺激素替代疗法（THRT），甲状腺功能减退患者的健康相关生活质量仍较差。了解患者对左甲状腺素的担忧有助于改善THRT的治疗效果。
本研究旨在（1）确定患者对THRT担忧的独特主题，（2）确定患者是否有因人口统计学特征而异的独特主要用药担忧，以及（3）确定主要用药担忧对患者治疗满意度的可预测性。
我们收集了2007年9月1日至2017年1月30日期间在美国WebMD上发布的患者评论（1037条关于通用左甲状腺素的评论和1075条关于品牌版本的评论）。我们使用自然语言处理来确定用药担忧的主题。进行多元回归分析以检验主要用药担忧对患者治疗满意度的可预测性。
对社交网站上发布的左甲状腺素患者评论进行自然语言处理，得出与左甲状腺素治疗相关的6个独特的患者用药担忧主题：如何服药、治疗开始、剂量调整、疼痛症状、通用替代品和外观。患者因其性别、年龄和治疗持续时间而有不同的主要用药担忧。此外，左甲状腺素的治疗满意度取决于患者的主要用药担忧是什么。
对社交媒体上可用文本内容进行自然语言处理可以识别患者用药担忧的不同主题，这些主题可在未来研究中得到验证，以为量身定制的用药咨询设计提供信息，从而提高患者治疗满意度。
