Investigating Reddit Data on Type 2 Diabetes Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Latent Dirichlet...

Area of Science:

• Health behavior research
• Digital health
• Public health

Background:

• Type 2 diabetes (T2D) management relies on healthy behaviors, which were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Pandemic-related factors like closures and isolation complicated T2D self-management.
• Individuals with T2D faced heightened risks for COVID-19 complications and increased mental health burdens.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze emerging themes in T2D health behaviors during the early COVID-19 pandemic.
• To investigate how pandemic conditions affected individuals with T2D.
• To examine discussions within online T2D communities on Reddit.

Main Methods:

• Downloaded Reddit data (Jan 2018-Mar 2021) using Pushshift API.
• Employed support vector machines for pandemic context classification.
• Utilized Latent Dirichlet allocation for topic modeling and VADER for sentiment analysis.

Main Results:

• Key themes included lifestyle management, blood glucose control, diabetes care access, and coping/support.
• COVID-19 specific posts highlighted mental health, care access, diet changes, stress impact, employment/insurance issues, and COVID-19 risks.
• COVID-19 related posts showed significantly lower sentiment scores compared to non-COVID posts.

Conclusions:

• The COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered T2D management, affecting care access and complication management.
• Early pandemic stages led to a negative shift in attitudes among people with T2D.
• Social media platforms like Reddit offer valuable qualitative insights into patient experiences.