The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases: insights from patient-generated data on social media.
Rheumatology (Oxford)
; 60(SI): SI77-SI84, 2021 10 09.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1462481
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, much communication occurred online, through social media. This study aimed to provide patient perspective data on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs), using Twitter-based patient-generated health data (PGHD).METHODS:
A convenience sample of Twitter messages in English posted by people with RMDs was extracted between 1 March and 12 July 2020 and examined using thematic analysis. Included were Twitter messages that mentioned keywords and hashtags related to both COVID-19 (or SARS-CoV-2) and select RMDs. The RMDs monitored included inflammatory-driven (joint) conditions (ankylosing spondylitis, RA, PsA, lupus/SLE and gout).RESULTS:
The analysis included 569 tweets by 375 Twitter users with RMDs across several countries. Eight themes emerged regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with RMDs (i) lack of understanding of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19; (ii) critical changes in health behaviour; (iii) challenges in healthcare practice and communication with healthcare professionals; (iv) difficulties with access to medical care; (v) negative impact on physical and mental health, coping strategies; (vi) issues around work participation; (vii) negative effects of the media; and (viii) awareness-raising.CONCLUSION:
The findings show that Twitter serves as a real-time data source to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with RMDs. The platform provided 'early signals' of potentially critical health behaviour changes. Future epidemics might benefit from the real-time use of Twitter-based PGHD to identify emerging health needs, facilitate communication and inform clinical practice decisions.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Quarantine
/
Rheumatic Diseases
/
Musculoskeletal Diseases
/
Social Media
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Rheumatology (Oxford)
Journal subject:
Rheumatology
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Rheumatology
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS