[Quantitative analysis of autism online forums].

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Computational Linguistics

Context:

• Social media platforms are increasingly utilized for health discussions.
• Analysis of autism-related content on Reddit subreddits (r/autism, r/aspergers, r/AutismInWomen).

Purpose:

• To analyze autism-related discussions on Reddit using machine learning.
• To identify prevalent themes, sentiment, and symptom categories within these online conversations.

Summary:

• Machine learning models (BERT, DistilRoBERTa) analyzed word frequency, sentiment, and symptom categories in Reddit posts.
• Findings indicate primary discussion themes include emotional regulation, social relationships, and sensory issues.
• Sentiment analysis revealed fear as a prominent emotion, with less prevalence of joy.

Impact:

• Provides insights into the lived experiences and challenges faced by individuals with autism.
• Informs healthcare professionals and providers for developing more effective, targeted support strategies.