Decoding chronic disease and public health dialogues : a social network clustering analysis approach
Authors:   , Jain Nishant Rajkumar 
Published: November 2024

[EMBARGOED UNTIL 08/01/2025] Social media, for the past twenty years and especially post-pandemic, has a major impact on health information consumers as well as on health information sharing. With more and more consumers spending greater time on social media and mobile apps, it is destined to have an indisputable influence on personal healthcare decision-making and choices that consumers make about taking care of their health. In a PwC poll, 41 percent of respondents said they made their decision on a certain physician, hospital, or medical facility based on information they found on social media. Social media sites can serve as focal points for tracking online dialogues about diseases where users engage in inquiries, posting personal accounts, and debating subjects like diabetes and cancer. Studies have shown that social media content analysis from social media websites and apps can provide unique viewpoints on chronic diseases, the accessibility of treatment, and their consequences. This can lead to an enhanced understanding of topics as it is useful in detecting systemic obstacles and disparities, as well as informing focused initiatives, lobbying efforts, and legislative changes. Further, the enhancement of social media information retrieval using social network analysis tools is an innovative and user-friendly method to unveil contemporary patterns impacting the domain of chronic illnesses in chronic and public health discussions. There are hardly any studies that use social network analysis to study chronic disease information on social media channels. The dissertation follows disease conversations by using social media network analysis to examine narratives about managing diabetes and cancer, COVID-19 and health equity, and health insurance. We demonstrate that using this technique, researchers can keep an eye on current conversations and spot reoccurring themes. Real-time monitoring can shed light on topics such as treatment outcomes, public perceptions, and obstacles to disease management with amazing speed. We believe that systematically carrying out social network analysis could help to respond to and design policy measures to fix coverage gaps and enhance service accessibility guided by social media insights. Positive changes in public health can be facilitated while supporting community engagement, promoting health equity, and targeted interventions in real time. This dissertation emphasizes how social media content analysis can revolutionize research on chronic diseases and public health conversations. Our plan for creating a dashboard with state-by-state social media live links related to chronic illnesses and rare diseases is one of our ongoing and upcoming projects. This dashboard will be a valuable tool for monitoring and accessing public health issues and revealing the burden of chronic diseases online. It could provide public health agencies the means to incorporate a comprehensive strategy for addressing the difficulties seen with chronic diseases in the digital age.