Sexual and Gender-Diverse Individuals Face More Health Challenges during COVID-19: A Large-Scale Social Media Analysis with Natural Language Processing.

ABSTRACT: Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a disproportionate impact on the sexual and gender-diverse (SGD) community. Compared with non-SGD populations, their social relations and health status are more vulnerable, whereas public health data regarding SGD are scarce. Methods: To analyze the concerns and health status of SGD individuals, this cohort study leveraged 471,371,477 tweets from 251,455 SGD and 22,644,411 non-SGD users, spanning from 2020 February 1 to 2022 April 30. The outcome measures comprised the distribution and dynamics of COVID-related topics, attitudes toward vaccines, and the prevalence of symptoms. Results: Topic analysis revealed that SGD users engaged more frequently in discussions related to "friends and family" (20.5% vs. 13.1%, P < 0.

SUBMITTER: Zhang Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11378377 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature