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RESEARCH PAPER
Patients’ insights on symptoms, daily life and treatment related to asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease through social media listening analysis
1
Department of Respiratory Medicine,
Faculty of Medicine, University of Ioannina
School of Medicine, Ioannina, Greece
2
AstraZeneca Medical Department,
Respiratory and Immunology, Athens, Greece
Submission date: 2024-06-19
Final revision date: 2024-09-03
Acceptance date: 2024-09-11
Publication date: 2024-10-01
Corresponding author
Konstantinos Kostikas
Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Ioannina, 45500, Greece
Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Ioannina, 45500, Greece
Pneumon 2024;37(4):42
HIGHLIGHTS
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KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Social media listening provides an opportunity to track behaviors and build a solid understanding of how patients think about asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Methods:
Based on a comprehensive search on social media platforms in Greek from June 2020 to March 2022, mentions on symptoms, daily life aspects and treatment were analyzed with descriptive statistics applied on aggregated findings.
Results:
A total of 18480 posts were considered for the analysis. For asthma, the total buzz was 8449, retrieved by 1043 unique sources, with news sites being the most common source (86%), followed by blogs (12%) and social media (2%). The topics with the highest buzz were diagnosis and treatment with 6741 mentions (23%), triggers and causes with 6003 (21%), and impact of COVID-19 with 4253 (15%). Based on 4121 mentions of symptoms, the most reported symptoms were cough (64%), dyspnea (39%) and difficulty in breathing (16%). For COPD, the total number of mentions was 10031, coming from 1036 unique sources, with most of mentions being generated by news sites (83%) and blogs (10%). The topics with the highest buzz were diagnosis and treatment with 7671 mentions (25%), impact of COVID-19 with 6727 (22%), and triggers and causes with 6149 (20%). Based on 2380 mentions of symptoms, the most reported were COPD symptoms (52%), cough (40%), and dyspnea (29%).
Conclusions:
Monitoring asthma and COPD-related posts provides realtime information on disease impact on patient’s daily life and may provide important insights that can be used in understanding unmet needs and decision making.
Social media listening provides an opportunity to track behaviors and build a solid understanding of how patients think about asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Methods:
Based on a comprehensive search on social media platforms in Greek from June 2020 to March 2022, mentions on symptoms, daily life aspects and treatment were analyzed with descriptive statistics applied on aggregated findings.
Results:
A total of 18480 posts were considered for the analysis. For asthma, the total buzz was 8449, retrieved by 1043 unique sources, with news sites being the most common source (86%), followed by blogs (12%) and social media (2%). The topics with the highest buzz were diagnosis and treatment with 6741 mentions (23%), triggers and causes with 6003 (21%), and impact of COVID-19 with 4253 (15%). Based on 4121 mentions of symptoms, the most reported symptoms were cough (64%), dyspnea (39%) and difficulty in breathing (16%). For COPD, the total number of mentions was 10031, coming from 1036 unique sources, with most of mentions being generated by news sites (83%) and blogs (10%). The topics with the highest buzz were diagnosis and treatment with 7671 mentions (25%), impact of COVID-19 with 6727 (22%), and triggers and causes with 6149 (20%). Based on 2380 mentions of symptoms, the most reported were COPD symptoms (52%), cough (40%), and dyspnea (29%).
Conclusions:
Monitoring asthma and COPD-related posts provides realtime information on disease impact on patient’s daily life and may provide important insights that can be used in understanding unmet needs and decision making.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors thank Palowise.ai, Athens, Greece, for conducting the SML analysis, funded by AstraZeneca S.A.,
Athens, Greece. We also thank Maria Kalogeropoulou of IQVIA
Hellas, Athens, Greece, for providing medical writing, editorial
and revision support, which was funded by AstraZeneca S.A.,
Athens, in accordance with Good Publication Practice (GPP)
guidelines29.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
The authors have each completed and submitted an ICMJE
form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. The authors declare that they have no competing interests,
financial or otherwise, related to the current work. K. Kostikas
has received grants or contracts from: Astra Zeneca,
Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Innovis, Elpen, GSK, Menarini,
Novartis and NuvoAir; consulting fees from Astra Zeneca,
Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Csl Behring, Elpen, GSK,
Menarini, Novartis, Pfizer and Sanofi Genzyme; and payments
or honoraria from Alector Pharmaceuticals, Astra Zeneca,
Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Elpen, Gilead, GSK, Menarini,
MSD, Novartis, Sanofi Genzyme, Pfizer and WebMD. He has
participated in Data Safety Monitoring Board or Advisory
Board for Chiesi, and is a member of GOLD Assembly. P.
Galanakis, N. Mathioudakis and C. Papista are employees of
AstraZeneca Greece.
FUNDING
This work was supported and funded by AstraZeneca S.A.
ETHICAL APPROVAL AND INFORMED CONSENT
Ethical approval and informed consent were not required for
this study. All data were obtained from publicly accessible
sources without accessing password-protected information.
All online content was anonymized, complying with the data
privacy obligations.
DATA AVAILABILITY
The data supporting this research cannot be made available
for privacy reasons.
AUTHORS' CONTRIBUTIONS
KK, AI, PG and NM: conceived and designed the study. All
authors: contributed to acquisition of data. KK, AI and CP:
contributed to analysis and interpretation of data, and drafted
the manuscript or revised it critically for important intellectual
content. All authors read, revised and approved the final
version of the manuscript.
PROVENANCE AND PEER REVIEW
Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
DISCLAIMER
K. Kostikas, Editor-in-Chief of the journal, had no involvement in the peer-review or acceptance of this article, and had no access to information regarding its peer review. Full responsibility for the editorial process for this article was delegated to a handling editor of the journal.
K. Kostikas, Editor-in-Chief of the journal, had no involvement in the peer-review or acceptance of this article, and had no access to information regarding its peer review. Full responsibility for the editorial process for this article was delegated to a handling editor of the journal.
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