BACKGROUND
Social media listening can be leveraged to obtain authentic perceptions about events, their impact, guidelines and policies. There has been to date no research that has examined COVID-19 patients’ experiences from diagnosis to treatment using social media listening in the United Kingdom.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to assess public perceptions, insights, and sentiments throughout the patient journey from diagnosis to treatment during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
METHODS
A comprehensive search query was designed to retrieve social media data that refer to COVID-19 and treatment. The search was conducted using the social media monitoring tool, Synthesio (Ipsos). Data were retrospectively collected for the period covering September 2019 to September 2022 from Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as well as 126 public forums (including Health Unlocked, Mums Net, The Student Room and Patient Forums UK). Available data in the UK expressed in the English language were collected and filtered generating a final dataset consisting of 31,319 posts. Complimentary Google trend analyses of Google search terms mentioning COVID-19 treatments were also performed.
RESULTS
Overall, the trend observed from social media posts relating to COVID-19 treatment extracted in Synthesio was largely congruent with the trend of COVID-19 searches on Google. We observed that the public had a good understanding of COVID-19 symptoms with many expressing concerns relating to severe symptoms. Negative attitude was associated with lack of testing and delay in diagnosis in the early part of the pandemic. Finally, the public displayed a high desire to access information regarding COVID-19 treatment.
CONCLUSIONS
Findings from this study have the potential to inform decision-making regarding public health interventions, communication strategies, and healthcare policies in the UK during future public health emergencies.