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Contents and sentiment analysis of newspaper articles and comments on telemedicine in Korea: Before and after of COVID-19 outbreak.

ABSTRACT: Telemedicine is rapidly growing to meet the increased needs for high-quality health care during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, telemedicine is still a sensitive issue as it is related to medical privatization. The use of telemedicine after the COVID-19 outbreak might be influenced by public opinion, and this may be an important key in implementing telemedicine. In this study, we aimed to assess if telemedicine-related newspaper articles and comments changed positively during the COVID-19 pandemic. From January 1, 2019, to March 1, 2020 (before COVID-19), a total of 1073 telemedicine-related articles were found in the Korean news network. Although the post-COVID-19 article collection period (from March 2, 2020, to September 30, 2020) was about half that of the pre-COVID-19, about twice the number (1934) of telemedicine-related articles were collected. And telemedicine-related news articles had a more positive tone post-COVID-19 than pre-COVID-19 (52.9% after vs 40.4% before). In conclusion, this study presented the association between the COVID-19 outbreak and changes in the media's perception of telemedicine in Korea. This study presented that, as telemedicine begins to be utilized due to COVID-19, news media and readers who embrace it are beginning to view telemedicine positively, suggesting that COVID-19 has a positive foundation for the spread of telemedicine.

SUBMITTER: Kang E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8883126 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan-Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Contents and sentiment analysis of newspaper articles and comments on telemedicine in Korea: Before and after of COVID-19 outbreak.

Kang EunKyo E Song Narae N Ju HyoRim H

Health informatics journal 20220101 1

Telemedicine is rapidly growing to meet the increased needs for high-quality health care during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, telemedicine is still a sensitive issue as it is related to medical privatization. The use of telemedicine after the COVID-19 outbreak might be influenced by public opinion, and this may be an important key in implementing telemedicine. In this study, we aimed to assess if telemedicine-related newspaper articles and comments changed positively during the COVID-19 pandem ...[more]

PMID: 35212233

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Project description:BackgroundSocial media enables the rapid consumption of news related to COVID-19 and serves as a platform for discussions. Its richness in text-based data in the form of posts and comments allows researchers to identify popular topics and assess public sentiment. Nonetheless, the vast majority of topic extraction and sentiment analysis based on social media is performed on the platform or country level and does not account for local culture and policies.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to use location-based subreddits on Reddit to study city-level variations in sentiments toward vaccine-related topics.MethodsComments on posts providing regular updates on COVID-19 statistics in the Vancouver (r/vancouver, n=49,291), Toronto (r/toronto, n=20,764), and Calgary (r/calgary, n=21,277) subreddits between July 13, 2020, and June 14, 2021, were extracted. Latent Dirichlet allocation was used to identify frequently discussed topics. Sentiment (joy, sadness, fear, and anger) scores were assigned to comments through random forest regression.ResultsThe number of comments on the 250 posts from the Vancouver subreddit positively correlated with the number of new daily COVID-19 cases in British Columbia (R=0.51, 95% CI for slope 0.18-0.29; P<.001). From the comments, 13 topics were identified. Two were related to vaccines, 1 regarding vaccine uptake and the other about vaccine supply. The levels of discussion for both topics were linked to the total number of vaccines administered (Granger test for causality, P<.001). Comments pertaining to either topic displayed higher scores for joy than for other topics (P<.001). Calgary and Toronto also discussed vaccine uptake. Sentiment scores for this topic differed across the 3 cities (P<.001).ConclusionsOur work demonstrates that data from city-specific subreddits can be used to better understand concerns and sentiments around COVID-19 vaccines at the local level. This can potentially lead to more targeted and publicly acceptable policies based on content on social media.

Project description:BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a rapid shift in how individuals interact with and receive fundamental services, including health care. Although telemedicine is not a novel technology, previous studies have offered mixed opinions surrounding its utilization. However, there exists a dearth of research on how these opinions have evolved over the course of the current pandemic.ObjectiveThis study aims to evaluate how the language and sentiment surrounding telemedicine has evolved throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsTweets published between January 1, 2020, and April 24, 2021, containing at least one telemedicine-related and one COVID-19-related search term ("telemedicine-COVID") were collected from the Twitter full archive search (N=351,718). A comparator sample containing only COVID-19 terms ("general-COVID") was collected and sampled based on the daily distribution of telemedicine-COVID tweets. In addition to analyses of retweets and favorites, sentiment analysis was performed on both data sets in aggregate and within a subset of tweets receiving the top 100 most and least retweets.ResultsTelemedicine gained prominence during the early stages of the pandemic (ie, March through May 2020) before leveling off and reaching a steady state from June 2020 onward. Telemedicine-COVID tweets had a 21% lower average number of retweets than general-COVID tweets (incidence rate ratio 0.79, 95% CI 0.63-0.99; P=.04), but there was no difference in favorites. A majority of telemedicine-COVID tweets (180,295/351,718, 51.3%) were characterized as "positive," compared to only 38.5% (135,434/351,401) of general-COVID tweets (P<.001). This trend was also true on a monthly level from March 2020 through April 2021. The most retweeted posts in both telemedicine-COVID and general-COVID data sets were authored by journalists and politicians. Whereas the majority of the most retweeted posts within the telemedicine-COVID data set were positive (55/101, 54.5%), a plurality of the most retweeted posts within the general-COVID data set were negative (44/89, 49.4%; P=.01).ConclusionsDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, opinions surrounding telemedicine evolved to become more positive, especially when compared to the larger pool of COVID-19-related tweets. Decision makers should capitalize on these shifting public opinions to invest in telemedicine infrastructure and ensure its accessibility and success in a postpandemic world.

Project description:BackgroundConcern regarding the reliability and accuracy of the health-related information provided by online newspaper articles has increased. Numerous criteria and items have been proposed and published regarding the quality assessment of online information, but there is no standard quality assessment tool available for online newspapers.ObjectiveThis study aimed to develop the Health Information Quality Assessment Tool (HIQUAL) for online newspaper articles.MethodsWe reviewed previous health information quality assessment tools and related studies and accordingly developed and customized new criteria. The interrater agreement for the new assessment tool was assessed for 3 newspaper articles on different subjects (colorectal cancer, obesity genetic testing, and hypertension diagnostic criteria) using the Fleiss κ and Gwet agreement coefficient. To compare the quality scores generated by each pair of tools, convergent validity was measured using the Kendall τ ranked correlation.ResultsOverall, the HIQUAL for newspaper articles comprised 10 items across 5 domains: reliability, usefulness, understandability, sufficiency, and transparency. The interrater agreement for the article on colorectal cancer was in the moderate to substantial range (Fleiss κ=0.48, SE 0.11; Gwet agreement coefficient=0.74, SE 0.13), while for the article introducing obesity genetic testing it was in the substantial range, with values of 0.63 (SE 0.28) and 0.86 (SE 0.10) for the two measures, respectively. There was relatively low agreement for the article on hypertension diagnostic criteria at 0.20 (SE 0.10) and 0.75 (SE 0.13), respectively. Validity of the correlation assessed with the Kendall τ showed good correlation between tools (HIQUAL vs DISCERN=0.72, HIQUAL vs QUEST [Quality Evaluation Scoring Tool]=0.69).ConclusionsWe developed a new assessment tool to evaluate the quality of health information in online newspaper articles, to help consumers discern accurate sources of health information. The HIQUAL can help increase the accuracy and quality of online health information in Korea.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Because organ transplantation relies on public support for donation, an analysis of public discourse around organ donation is essential. We investigated the portrayal of family veto - when a family overrides the deceased person's prior legally executed wishes to donate - in Canadian news media. METHODS:Using the Canadian Newsstream database, we identified articles published in English-language newspapers addressing family veto between 2000 and 2016. Guided by the theoretical perspectives of framing of media effects, we conducted a systematic content analysis of the articles to examine how the Canadian media framed family veto. An initial in-depth analysis of the data set in which themes and patterns were captured and recorded identified coding categories, including primary framing of family veto, prevalence, reasons, ethical or legal concerns and overall tone of the article. Two coders analyzed the data set to ensure intercoder reliability. RESULTS:A total of 133 relevant articles were identified. Family veto was framed predominantly as something that should not be allowed (81 articles [60.9%]) and as a reality that is little understood outside the transplantation community (45 [33.8%]). One-quarter of the articles (32 [24.1%]) highlighted ethical principles of autonomy and justice associated with family veto. Family veto was represented as a stumbling block in the present organ donation system, with most publications (107 [80.4%]) calling for change. There were differing interpretations of organ donation legislation, with 82 articles (61.6%) erroneously stating or suggesting that existing legislation permits family veto. INTERPRETATION:Family veto in organ donation was portrayed predominantly negatively. Many publications reflected a misunderstanding of the law concerning this issue. Although the framing of family veto highlighted important ethical and legal concerns as well as practice and policy considerations, research is needed to enhance the understanding of family veto in organ donation.

Dataset Information

Contents and sentiment analysis of newspaper articles and comments on telemedicine in Korea: Before and after of COVID-19 outbreak.

Publications

Contents and sentiment analysis of newspaper articles and comments on telemedicine in Korea: Before and after of COVID-19 outbreak.

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