Mining the Characteristics of COVID-19 Patients in China: Analysis of Social Media Posts

Abstract

Background In December 2019, pneumonia cases of unknown origin were reported in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. Identified as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the number of cases grew rapidly by human-to-human transmission in Wuhan. Social media, especially Sina Weibo (a major Chinese microblogging social media site), has become an important platform for the public to obtain information and seek help. Objective This study aims to analyze the characteristics of suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients who asked for help on Sina Weibo. Methods We conducted data mining on Sina Weibo and extracted the data of 485 patients who presented with clinical symptoms and imaging descriptions of suspected or laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19. In total, 9878 posts seeking help on Sina Weibo from February 3 to 20, 2020 were analyzed. We used a descriptive research methodology to describe the distribution and other epidemiological characteristics of patients with suspected or laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) infection. The distance between patients’ home and the nearest designated hospital was calculated using the geographic information system ArcGIS. Results All patients included in this study who sought help on Sina Weibo lived in Wuhan, with a median age of 63.0 years (IQR 55.0-71.0). Fever (408/485, 84.12%) was the most common symptom. Ground-glass opacity (237/314, 75.48%) was the most common pattern on chest computed tomography; 39.67% (167/421) of families had suspected and/or laboratory-confirmed family members; 36.58% (154/421) of families had 1 or 2 suspected and/or laboratory-confirmed members; and 70.52% (232/329) of patients needed to rely on their relatives for help. The median time from illness onset to real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing was 8 days (IQR 5.0-10.0), and the median time from illness onset to online help was 10 days (IQR 6.0-12.0). Of 481 patients, 32.22% (n=155) lived more than 3 kilometers away from the nearest designated hospital. Conclusions Our findings show that patients seeking help on Sina Weibo lived in Wuhan and most were elderly. Most patients had fever symptoms, and ground-glass opacities were noted in chest computed tomography. The onset of the disease was characterized by family clustering and most families lived far from the designated hospital. Therefore, we recommend the following: (1) the most stringent centralized medical observation measures should be taken to avoid transmission in family clusters; and (2) social media can help these patients get early attention during Wuhan’s lockdown. These findings can help the government and the health department identify high-risk patients and accelerate emergency responses following public demands for help.

What triggers online help-seeking retransmission during the COVID-19 period? Empirical evidence from Chinese social media

“…According to Weibo's user report in 2018, this social media service has accumulated more than 0.4 billion monthly active users and nearly 0.2 billion daily active users until Q4 of 2018 [79]. Weibo has been proved as a vibrant discussion platform and help-seeking space during major social events, especially in the COVID-19 period [4,5]. All authors went through relevant help-seeking posts on Weibo and picked up pertinent keywords.…”

“…So far, some researches have concentrated on the effects of social media in this particular period. For example, harness the social media posts to predict infected case counts and inform timely responses under the infoveillance or infodemiology framework [3,4]; analyze the help-seeking posts to identify the characteristics of COVID-19 patients [5]; discuss the online censorship on social media from the risk communication perspective [6]. Among all the research, online help-seeking, as a practical approach to handle difficulties during public health emergencies, has a unique research significance.…”

“…Among all the research, online help-seeking, as a practical approach to handle difficulties during public health emergencies, has a unique research significance. Firstly, when facing scarce medical resources during the initial outbreak stage, many suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients were failing to be admitted to a hospital, many of them turned to social media fork help (e.g., sickbeds, testing kits, emotional comforts) and share information instantly [5]. Secondly, online help-seeking helps relevant actors to ease anxiety, build mutual aid networks, and make the most of the collective power to cope with risks [7,8].…”

The social life of COVID-19: Early insights from social media monitoring data collected in Poland

“…22 It was also found, that people use social media not only for seeking information about COVID-19 but they seek help, and most of them were elderly. 23 According to our findings, the spread of information about COVID-19 shapes the huge online discussion about a novel coronavirus and can make meaningful contributions in current crisis. As Zhao and Cheng et al agreed the public's emotional tendency toward the topics related to the COVID-19 epidemic changed from negative to neutral across the study period.…”

Online Discourse in the Context of COVID-19, the First Health Crisis in China after the Advent of Mobile Social Media: A Content Analysis of China’s Weibo and Baidu

“…In the case of the health crisis of the coronavirus COVID-19, which started in December 2019 in China and was continued as SARS-CoV-2 and declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020 (Hua and Shaw 2020), Weibo has become a social network for information and help for people who had self-identified symptoms compatible with the coronavirus infection (Huang et al 2020). Similarly, 70% of the messages published on Weibo were identified as negative in the field of communication and health, in the sense that they were identified as threats to people who displayed unhealthy behaviour and posed a danger to other citizens (Yu).…”