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Assessing Patient Perceptions and Experiences of Paracetamol in France: Infodemiology Study Using Social Media Data Mining (Preprint)

Stéphane Schück, Avesta Roustamal, Anaïs Gedik, Paméla Voillot, Pierre Foulquié, Catherine Penfornis, Bernard Job

2020

Abstract

BACKGROUND Individuals frequently turning to social media to discuss medical conditions and medication, sharing their experiences and information and asking questions among themselves. These online discussions can provide valuable insights into individual perceptions of medical treatment, and increasingly, studies are focusing on the potential use of this information to improve health care management. OBJECTIVE The objective of this infodemiology study was to identify social media posts mentioning paracetamol-containing products to develop a better understanding of patients’ opinions and perceptions of the drug. METHODS Posts between January 2003 and March 2019 containing at least one mention of paracetamol were extracted from 18 French forums in May 2019 with the use of the Detec’t (Kap Code) web crawler. Posts were then analyzed using the automated Detec’t tool, which uses machine learning and text mining methods to inspect social media posts and extract relevant content. Posts were classified into groups: Paracetamol Only, Paracetamol and Opioids, Paracetamol and Others, and the Aggregate group. RESULTS Overall, 44,283 posts were analyzed from 20,883 different users. Post volume over the study period showed a peak in activity between 2009 and 2012, as well as a spike in 2017 in the Aggregate group. The number of posts tended to be higher during winter each year. Posts were made predominantly by women (14,897/20,883, 71.34%), with 12.00% (2507/20,883) made by men and…

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