CHANGES IN THE NEEDS OF IBD PATIENTS FOR TREATMENT BEFORE AND AFTER THE COIVD19 EPIDEMIC (ANALYSIS USING TWITTER DATA)

ABSTRACT

Background Currently, in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), there is an emphasis on cooperation between physicians and patients, taking into account patients' life events and values. On the other hand, since the COVID-19 epidemic, patients' needs for treatment may have changed compared to the past, but few studies have clarified this. Therefore, in this study, we examined the treatment needs of patients and their changes after the COVID epidemic in Japan based on patients' posts on Twitter, a social media frequently used by IBD patients. Methods We collected posts related to IBD treatment from Twitter using 11 keywords (Remicade, Humira, etc.). We limited the number of posts extracted to 100 for each period and each word. Extracted posts were manually categorized and analyzed for characteristic words. We collected the Data only for tweets in Japanese. The data collection period was seven periods two periods before the COVID epidemic and five periods after the COVID epidemic (corresponding to the first to fifth waves of the COVID epidemic in Japan). These are April 10-14, 2019;August 10-14, 2019;April 10- 14, 2020;August 10-14, 2020;January 6-10, 2021;May 10-14, 2021;and August 18-22, 2021, respectively. We used the statistical software R to extract the submissions. <div>Results We extracted A total of 2,111 tweets. Of these, we excluded posts unrelated to IBD, and we included 1,862 in the analysis. The contents of the tweets were positive opinions about treatment, negative opinions about treatment and side effects, intended to gather information from patients, work and school (anxiety about taking time off for treatment), impact on pregnancy and childbirth, hospital visits (time spent in hospital, treatment time, worry about infection from hospital visits), encouragement among patients, family Tweets about the COVID epidemic ranged from 5% to 14% of the total. Tweets about anxiety about hospital visits increased significantly from 5% before the COVID epidemic to 18.5% after the epidemic. In addition, tweets about COVIDs were more common in biologics tweets than in 5ASA drugs. Conclusion To make appropriate Shared Decision Making, healthcare providers need to understand the needs of patients and provide relevant information.</div>