Natural Language Processing–Powered Real-Time Monitoring Solution for Vaccine Sentiments and Hesitancy on Social Media: System Development and Validation (Preprint)

Abstract

Vaccines serve as a crucial public health tool, although vaccine hesitancy continues to pose a significant threat to full vaccine uptake and, consequently, community health. Understanding and tracking vaccine hesitancy is essential for effective public health interventions; however, traditional survey methods present various limitations.

This study aimed to create a real-time, natural language processing (NLP)–based tool to assess vaccine sentiment and hesitancy across 3 prominent social media platforms.

We mined and curated discussions in English from Twitter (subsequently rebranded as X), Reddit, and YouTube social media platforms posted between January 1, 2011, and October 31, 2021, concerning human papillomavirus; measles, mumps, and rubella; and unspecified vaccines. We tested multiple NLP algorithms to classify vaccine sentiment into positive, neutral, or negative and to classify vaccine hesitancy using the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 3Cs (confidence, complacency, and convenience) hesitancy model, conceptualizing an online dashboard to illustrate and contextualize trends.

We compiled over 86 million discussions. Our top-performing NLP models displayed accuracies ranging from 0.51 to 0.78 for sentiment classification and from 0.69 to 0.91 for hesitancy classification. Explorative analysis on our platform highlighted variations in online activity about vaccine sentiment and hesitancy, suggesting unique patterns for different vaccines.

Our innovative system performs real-time analysis of sentiment and hesitancy on 3 vaccine topics across major social networks, providing crucial trend insights to assist campaigns aimed at enhancing vaccine uptake and public health.