Lee Kyunghwa, Hong Soomin
College of Nursing, Konyang University, Daejeon, Korea.
Red Cross College of Nursing, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea.
Healthc Inform Res. 2025 Apr;31(2):175-188. doi: 10.4258/hir.2025.31.2.175. Epub 2025 Apr 30.
This study examined the symptoms and emotions expressed by older adults with cancer and their caregivers in South Korean online cancer communities. It aimed to identify narrative patterns and provide insights to inform personalized care strategies.
We analyzed 6,908 user-generated posts collected from major online cancer communities in South Korea. Keyword frequency analysis, term frequency-inverse document frequency, 2-gram analysis, and latent Dirichlet allocation-based topic modeling were applied to explore language patterns. Sentiment analysis identified 12 emotional categories, and Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to examine associations between symptoms and emotional expressions. All data were cleaned and standardized prior to analysis.
Many users expressed anxiety (20.63%) and depression (19.59%), frequently associated with chemotherapy and sleep disturbances. Among reported symptoms, sleep problems carried the highest negative sentiment (79.81%), underscoring their profound impact on well-being. Topic modeling consistently revealed seven recurring themes, including treatment decision-making, symptom management, and concerns about family, demonstrating the layered and personalized experiences of older cancer patients and their caregivers.
This study explored treatment-related and symptom-related difficulties faced by older adults with cancer. Many reported significant emotional strain, especially anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances. These findings highlight the necessity for supportive strategies addressing both psychological and physical aspects of care. Future research could investigate the utility of large language models in analyzing these narratives, provided the data is ethically managed and appropriate for such use.
本研究调查了韩国在线癌症社区中老年癌症患者及其照顾者所表达的症状和情绪。其旨在识别叙事模式并提供见解，以为个性化护理策略提供参考。
我们分析了从韩国主要在线癌症社区收集的6908篇用户生成的帖子。应用关键词频率分析、词频逆文档频率、二元语法分析和基于潜在狄利克雷分配的主题建模来探索语言模式。情感分析确定了12种情感类别，并计算了皮尔逊相关系数以检验症状与情感表达之间的关联。所有数据在分析前均进行了清理和标准化。
许多用户表达了焦虑（20.63%）和抑郁（19.59%），这些情绪常与化疗和睡眠障碍相关。在报告的症状中，睡眠问题的负面情绪最高（79.81%），凸显了它们对幸福感的深远影响。主题建模始终揭示出七个反复出现的主题，包括治疗决策、症状管理以及对家庭的担忧，展示了老年癌症患者及其照顾者多层次的个性化经历。
本研究探讨了老年癌症患者面临的与治疗和症状相关的困难。许多人报告了严重的情绪压力，尤其是焦虑、抑郁和睡眠障碍。这些发现凸显了针对护理心理和身体方面的支持策略的必要性。未来的研究可以调查大语言模型在分析这些叙事中的效用，前提是数据得到符合伦理的管理且适合此类用途。
