Insights from Twitter About Public Perceptions of Asthma, COPD, and Exposures.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze tweets concerning asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). 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. 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. 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.