Using social media data to assess the impact of COVID-19 on mental health in China.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The outbreak and rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) not only caused an adverse impact on physical health, but also brought about mental health problems among the public.

Methods

To assess the causal impact of COVID-19 on psychological changes in China, we constructed a city-level panel data set based on the expressed sentiment in the contents of 13 million geotagged tweets on Sina Weibo, the Chinese largest microblog platform.

Results

Applying a difference-in-differences approach, we found a significant deterioration in mental health status after the occurrence of COVID-19. We also observed that this psychological effect faded out over time during our study period and was more pronounced among women, teenagers and older adults. The mental h

SUBMITTER: Zhu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8060544 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature