Service of Internal Medicine and Rheumatology, Autoimmune Diseases University Hospital "Principe de Asturias", 28805 Alcala de Henares, Spain.
Department of Medicine and Medical Specialities, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Alcala, 28805 Alcala de Henares, Spain.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Aug 28;18(17):9094. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18179094.
Tweets often indicate the interests of Twitter users. Data from Twitter could be used to better understand the interest in and perceptions of a variety of diseases and medical conditions, including rheumatological diseases which have increased in prevalence over the past several decades. The aim of this study was to perform a content analysis of tweets referring to rheumatological diseases.
The content of each tweet was rated as medical (including a reference to diagnosis, treatment, or other aspects of the disease) or non-medical (such as requesting help). The type of user and the suitability of the medical content (appropriate content or, on the contrary, fake content if it was medically inappropriate according to the current medical knowledge) were also evaluated. The number of retweets and likes generated were also investigated.
We analyzed a total of 1514 tweets: 1093 classified as medical and 421 as non-medical. The diseases with more tweets were the most prevalent. Within the medical tweets, the content of these varied according to the disease (some more focused on diagnosis and others on treatment). The fake content came from unidentified users and mostly referred to the treatment of diseases.
According to our results, the analysis of content posted on Twitter in regard to rheumatological diseases may be useful for investigating the public's prevailing areas of interest, concerns and opinions. Thus, it could facilitate communication between health care professionals and patients, and ultimately improve the doctor-patient relationship. Due to the interest shown in medical issues it seems desirable to have healthcare institutions and healthcare workers involved in Twitter.
推文通常可以反映出 Twitter 用户的兴趣。从 Twitter 上获取的数据可以用来更好地了解人们对各种疾病和医疗状况的兴趣和看法，包括过去几十年患病率不断上升的风湿性疾病。本研究旨在对与风湿性疾病相关的推文进行内容分析。
对每条推文的内容进行评估，分为医学类（包括对诊断、治疗或疾病其他方面的提及）和非医学类（如寻求帮助）。同时还评估了用户类型和医疗内容的适宜性（合适的内容，或者根据当前医学知识，如果内容不恰当，则为虚假内容）。还调查了转发和点赞的数量。
我们共分析了 1514 条推文：1093 条归类为医学类，421 条归类为非医学类。提到的疾病越多，相关的推文也就越多。在医学类推文中，这些内容根据疾病的不同而有所不同（有些更侧重于诊断，而有些则更侧重于治疗）。虚假内容来自身份不明的用户，主要涉及疾病的治疗。
根据我们的研究结果，对 Twitter 上发布的关于风湿性疾病的内容进行分析，可能有助于调查公众关注的主要领域、关注点和意见。因此，它可以促进医患之间的沟通，并最终改善医患关系。由于公众对医疗问题的关注，似乎有必要让医疗机构和医务人员参与到 Twitter 中。
