| dc.contributor.author | Patel, R | |
| dc.contributor.author | Smeraldi, F | |
| dc.contributor.author | Abdollahyan, M | |
| dc.contributor.author | Irving, J | |
| dc.contributor.author | Bessant, C | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-04-15T08:54:06Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-04-15T08:54:06Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2021-11-05 | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Patel R, Smeraldi F, Abdollahyan M, et alAnalysis of mental and physical disorders associated with COVID-19 in online health forums: a natural language processing studyBMJ Open 2021;11:e056601. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056601 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.issn | 2044-6055 | |
| dc.identifier.other | ARTN e056601 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/96140 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Objectives Online health forums provide rich and untapped real-time data on population health. Through novel data extraction and natural language processing (NLP) techniques, we characterise the evolution of mental and physical health concerns relating to the COVID-19 pandemic among online health forum users.
Setting and design We obtained data from three leading online health forums: HealthBoards, Inspire and HealthUnlocked, from the period 1 January 2020 to 31 May 2020. Using NLP, we analysed the content of posts related to COVID-19.
Primary outcome measures (1) Proportion of forum posts containing COVID-19 keywords; (2) proportion of forum users making their very first post about COVID-19; (3) proportion of COVID-19-related posts containing content related to physical and mental health comorbidities.
Results Data from 739 434 posts created by 53 134 unique users were analysed. A total of 35 581 posts (4.8%) contained a COVID-19 keyword. Posts discussing COVID-19 and related comorbid disorders spiked in early March to mid-March around the time of global implementation of lockdowns prompting a large number of users to post on online health forums for the first time. Over a quarter of COVID-19-related thread titles mentioned a physical or mental health comorbidity.
Conclusions We demonstrate that it is feasible to characterise the content of online health forum user posts regarding COVID-19 and measure changes over time. The pandemic and corresponding public response has had a significant impact on posters’ queries regarding mental health. Social media data sources such as online health forums can be harnessed to strengthen population-level mental health surveillance. | en_US |
| dc.publisher | BMJ Publishing Group | en_US |
| dc.relation.ispartof | BMJ OPEN | |
| dc.rights | This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. | |
| dc.subject | COVID-19 | en_US |
| dc.subject | health informatics | en_US |
| dc.subject | information technology | en_US |
| dc.title | Analysis of mental and physical disorders associated with COVID-19 in online health forums: a natural language processing study | en_US |
| dc.type | Article | en_US |
| dc.rights.holder | © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ. | |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056601 | |
| pubs.author-url | https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000716513900013&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=612ae0d773dcbdba3046f6df545e9f6a | en_US |
| pubs.issue | 11 | en_US |
| pubs.notes | Not known | en_US |
| pubs.publication-status | Published | en_US |
| pubs.volume | 11 | en_US |
| rioxxterms.funder | Default funder | en_US |
| rioxxterms.identifier.project | Default project | en_US |
