Assessment of public awareness, risk perception and mental health burden during the first 3 months of the COVID-19 epidemic in China: a social media surveillance (Preprint)

Abstract

The COVID-19 epidemic and subsequent containment measures may inflate public awareness, risk perception and mental health burden.

To assess the public awareness, risk perception and mental health burden in real time during the COVID-19 epidemic in China.

We collected data from Sina Weibo, the most popular social media platforms in China, from December 2019 to March 2020. The daily number of Weibo posts with keywords related to COVID-19 were presented with daily data on confirmed COVID-19 cases. All Weibo posts were analysed by the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count text analysis program to assess the public risk perception and mental health burden, measured by anxiety, depression, and anger.

A total of 4,992,731 Weibo posts were collected. The first coronavirus death triggered public perceived risk of an imminent epidemic. Delayed release of epidemic information contributed to mental health burden. Mental health burden evolved with the uncertainty and consequent anxiety about the coronavirus epidemic. Public anxiety started to decline after confirmation of human-to-human transmission, yet depression tied to a bleak future in light of the epidemic and anger at the late dissemination of relevant information increased until the implementation of containment measures.

Early release of information on emerging infectious diseases and early implementation of containment measures might effectively manage public awareness and risk perception and the consequential mental health burden. Social media surveillance should be fully incorporated into epidemic preparedness and response systems.