Applying Social Network Analysis to Compare Dementia Caregiving Networks on Twitter in Hispanic and Black Communities

Abstract

We applied social network analysis (SNA) on Tweets to compare Hispanic and Black dementia caregiving networks. We randomly extracted Tweets mentioning dementia caregiving and related terms from corpora collected daily via the Twitter API from September 1 to December 31, 2019 (initial corpus: n = 2,742,539 Tweets, random sample n = 549,380 English Tweets, n= 185,684 Spanish Tweets). After removing bot-generated Tweets, we first applied a lexicon-based demographic inference algorithm to automatically identify Tweets likely authored by Black and Hispanic individuals using Python (n = 114,511 English, n = 1,185 Spanish). Then, using ORA, we computed network measures at macro, meso, and micro levels and applied the Louvain clustering algorithm to detect groups within each Hispanic and Black caregiving network. Both networks contained a similar proportion of dyads and triads (Hispanic 88.2%, Black 88.9%), while the Black caregiving network included a slightly larger proportion of isolates (Hispanic 0.8%, Black 4.0%). This study provides useful baseline information on the composition of existing large groups and small groups. In addition, this work provides useful guidance for future recruitment strategies and the design of social support interventions regarding emotional needs for Hispanic and Black dementia caregivers.

Analyzing Twitter-Based Social Networks of Support Communities for Hispanic and African American Family Caregivers of Persons with Dementia

“…Other interventions seeking to reach underserved caregiver groups on Twitter or on other social network platforms such Mastodon, a federated, open-source Twitter alternative, are likely to encounter similar levels of social media competency among the enrolled participants and others who may interact with the communities due to their membership in related groups, or because they are ineligible for the study but nevertheless would benefit from access to the community as a "compassionate care" service. It is important also to note that the findings of our study align with previous research regarding the uneven reach of Twitter and other social media platforms, especially among caregivers of persons with dementia: Twitter use is slightly higher among those with a college education, and although approximately 24% of all online adults use Twitter, younger Americans are more likely than older Americans to use the platform [2,4].…”

“…These findings shed light on how to optimize recruitment strategies, highlighting the correlation between digital literacy deficiencies, indicated by a lack of engagement with the larger social media network community, and the ability of the participants to comprehensively access, engage and benefit from the full menu of resources made available through caregiver-targeted online community interventions, [2,5]. Our work not only pinpointed the social media competency gap among the enrolled family caregivers, it exhaustively identified the caregivers who lack social media competency and introduced opportunities to mitigate the gap.…”

“…We applied social network analysis to quantify community social network effects in the Twitter data using Python [2] and the Python NetworkX module, gathering statistics on the overall degree (number of connections) of each Twitter user and their indegree and out-degree (number of incoming and outgoing links) to represent the connectedness of the individual to his/her communities [2,3].…”

“…This identifies an outstanding need to forge relationships and networks with Hispanic and Black communities to meet the demands of the dementia caregiving population. Social exchange theory emphasizes the important role of friendship relations in behavioral science [2]. Twitter can improve the delivery of health interventions and increase social engagement and connectedness [2].…”

“…Social exchange theory emphasizes the important role of friendship relations in behavioral science [2]. Twitter can improve the delivery of health interventions and increase social engagement and connectedness [2]. However, the "digital divide" could intensify the disparities that caregivers already experience.…”