Statistically Evaluating Social Media Sentiment Trends towards COVID-19 Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions with Event Studies

Niu, Jingcheng; Rees, Erin E.; Ng, Victoria; Penn, Gerald

doi:10.18653/v1/2021.smm4h-1.1

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 18 publications

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“…Empirically, sentiment-based studies that employ social media data were typically used to evaluate the public's attitudes and sentiments towards COVID-19 related policy implementations, including mask-wearing, economic support, and school closure ( Ewing and Vu, 2021 , Kwok et al, 2021 , Manguri et al, 2020 , Niu et al, 2021 ). Others have investigated the public's opinion and awareness of COVID-19 related events (e.g., protests against lockdown, vaccination, and university reopening) and speeches/comments of political leaders (e.g., Donald Trump) ( Hu et al, 2021 , Jang et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Current Progressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social media mining under the COVID-19 context: Progress, challenges, and opportunities

Huang

Wang

Zhang

et al. 2022

International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinfor

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Section: Current Progressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social media mining under the COVID-19 context: Progress, challenges, and opportunities

Huang

Wang

Zhang

et al. 2022

International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinfor

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Linking Opinions Shared on Social Media About COVID-19 Public Health Measures to Adherence: Repeated Cross-Sectional Surveys of Twitter Use in Canada

Denis-Robichaud,

Rees,

Daley

et al. 2024

J Med Internet Res

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Background The effectiveness of public health measures (PHMs) depends on population adherence. Social media were suggested as a tool to assess adherence, but representativeness and accuracy issues have been raised. Objective The objectives of this repeated cross-sectional study were to compare self-reported PHM adherence and sociodemographic characteristics between people who used Twitter (subsequently rebranded X) and people who did not use Twitter. Methods Repeated Canada-wide web-based surveys were conducted every 14 days from September 2020 to March 2022. Weighted proportions were calculated for descriptive variables. Using Bayesian logistic regression models, we investigated associations between Twitter use, as well as opinions in tweets, and self-reported adherence with mask wearing and vaccination. Results Data from 40,230 respondents were analyzed. As self-reported, Twitter was used by 20.6% (95% CI 20.1%-21.2%) of Canadians, of whom 29.9% (95% CI 28.6%-31.3%) tweeted about COVID-19. The sociodemographic characteristics differed across categories of Twitter use and opinions. Overall, 11% (95% CI 10.6%-11.3%) of Canadians reported poor adherence to mask-wearing, and 10.8% (95% CI 10.4%-11.2%) to vaccination. Twitter users who tweeted about COVID-19 reported poorer adherence to mask wearing than nonusers, which was modified by the age of the respondents and their geographical region (odds ratio [OR] 0.79, 95% Bayesian credibility interval [BCI] 0.18-1.69 to OR 4.83, 95% BCI 3.13-6.86). The odds of poor adherence to vaccination of Twitter users who tweeted about COVID-19 were greater than those of nonusers (OR 1.76, 95% BCI 1.48-2.07). English- and French-speaking Twitter users who tweeted critically of PHMs were more likely (OR 4.07, 95% BCI 3.38-4.80 and OR 7.31, 95% BCI 4.26-11.03, respectively) to report poor adherence to mask wearing than non–Twitter users, and those who tweeted in support were less likely (OR 0.47, 95% BCI 0.31-0.64 and OR 0.96, 95% BCI 0.18-2.33, respectively) to report poor adherence to mask wearing than non–Twitter users. The OR of poor adherence to vaccination for those tweeting critically about PHMs and for those tweeting in support of PHMs were 4.10 (95% BCI 3.40-4.85) and 0.20 (95% BCI 0.10-0.32), respectively, compared to non–Twitter users. Conclusions Opinions shared on Twitter can be useful to public health authorities, as they are associated with adherence to PHMs. However, the sociodemographics of social media users do not represent the general population, calling for caution when using tweets to assess general population-level behaviors.

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Statistically Evaluating Social Media Sentiment Trends towards COVID-19 Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions with Event Studies

Cited by 2 publications

References 18 publications

Social media mining under the COVID-19 context: Progress, challenges, and opportunities

Social media mining under the COVID-19 context: Progress, challenges, and opportunities

Linking Opinions Shared on Social Media About COVID-19 Public Health Measures to Adherence: Repeated Cross-Sectional Surveys of Twitter Use in Canada

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