TY - JOUR
T1 - Insights from Twitter about Public Perceptions of Asthma, COPD, and Exposures
AU - Harber, Philip
AU - Leroy, Gondy
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2019 The Author(s).
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/6/1
Y1 - 2019/6/1
N2 - Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze tweets concerning asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: Approximately 40,000 tweets containing asthma or COPD were analyzed. Lexical analysis ranked terms and domains of interest, compared COPD with asthma tweets, evaluated co-occurrence of terms within tweets, and assessed differences by source (personal, institutional, or retweet). The frequency of indicator terms relevant to occupational health was determined. Results: Many tweets address community pollution and effects on children, but there is much less interest in work-related factors and occupational regulatory agencies. Environment is considered much more relevant for asthma than COPD. Conclusion: Although epidemiologic studies demonstrate a major burden of occupational factors upon both diseases, significantly improved outreach is needed to overcome inadequate public interest. Social media represent a valuable resource for assessing perceptions about work-related disease and potentially discovering new associations.
AB - Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze tweets concerning asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: Approximately 40,000 tweets containing asthma or COPD were analyzed. Lexical analysis ranked terms and domains of interest, compared COPD with asthma tweets, evaluated co-occurrence of terms within tweets, and assessed differences by source (personal, institutional, or retweet). The frequency of indicator terms relevant to occupational health was determined. Results: Many tweets address community pollution and effects on children, but there is much less interest in work-related factors and occupational regulatory agencies. Environment is considered much more relevant for asthma than COPD. Conclusion: Although epidemiologic studies demonstrate a major burden of occupational factors upon both diseases, significantly improved outreach is needed to overcome inadequate public interest. Social media represent a valuable resource for assessing perceptions about work-related disease and potentially discovering new associations.
KW - COPD
KW - natural language processing
KW - occupational asthma
KW - occupational respiratory disorders
KW - public health informatics
KW - social media
KW - twitter
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U2 - 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001590
DO - 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001590
M3 - Article
C2 - 30946185
AN - SCOPUS:85067376675
VL - 61
SP - 484
EP - 490
JO - Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
JF - Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
SN - 1076-2752
IS - 6
ER -