Understanding Perceptions and Attitudes in Breast Cancer Discussions on Twitter

Among American women, the rate of breast cancer is only second to lung cancer. An estimated 12.4% women will develop breast cancer over the course of their lifetime. The widespread use of social media across the socio-economic spectrum offers unparalleled ways to facilitate information sharing, in particular as it pertains to health. Social media is also used by many healthcare stakeholders, ranging from government agencies to healthcare industry, to disseminate health information and to engage patients. The purpose of this study is to investigate people's perceptions and attitudes related to breast cancer, especially those that are related to physical activities, on Twitter. To achieve this, we first identified and collected tweets related to breast cancer; and then used topic modeling and sentiment analysis techniques to understand discussion themes and quantify Twitter users' perceptions and emotions with respect tobreast cancer to answer 5 research questions.