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Analyzing Social Media Data to Understand Consumer Information Needs on Dietary Supplements
Rubina F Rizvi1,2, Yefeng Wang1, Thao Nguyen3
1Institute for Health Informatics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Studies in Health Technology and Informatics
|August 24, 2019
Summary
Understanding consumer information needs on dietary supplements (DS) is crucial. This study used topic modeling on online questions to identify key interests and ensure accurate information resource development.
Area of Science:
- Health Informatics
- Consumer Health Information
- Natural Language Processing
Background:
- Dietary supplements (DS) are widely used, yet reliable online information is scarce.
- Existing resources often fail to meet the diverse information needs of consumers.
- Understanding consumer queries is essential for developing effective DS information platforms.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify consumer information needs regarding dietary supplements (DS) using topic modeling.
- To evaluate the accuracy of identifying DS topics from social media data.
- To inform the creation of a structured and comprehensive DS resource.
Main Methods:
- Collected 16,095 unique questions related to 438 DS ingredients from Yahoo! Answers.
- Applied unsupervised topic modeling (Correlation Explanation - CorEx) to analyze consumer questions.
- Manually reviewed 200 generated topics, categorizing them into 38 health-related categories and 12 higher-level groups.
Main Results:
- Uncovered key topics of consumer interest concerning dietary supplements.
- Achieved high accuracy (90-100%) in correctly identifying question topics.
- Identified 38 specific health-related categories and 12 broader groups of consumer interest.
Conclusions:
- Consumer interest in dietary supplements spans various health topics.
- Topic modeling accurately captures consumer information needs from online platforms.
- Findings can guide the development of targeted and user-centered DS information resources.
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