Findings from a social media listening study on Chinese patients with Alzheimer's disease: a content analysis

作者：Nan Zhi, Yongtian Zhang, Wenwei Cao, Jinwen Xiao, Jianping Li, Haixia Li, Xinyi Xie, Ru‐Jing Ren, Jieli Geng, Gang Wang · 发表于：General Psychiatry · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1136/gpsych-2024-101794 · 被引用次数：2 · 研究领域：Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research、Health Literacy and Information Accessibility、Mental Health via Writing

Background: Social media listening is a new approach for gathering insights from social media platforms about users' experiences. This approach has not been applied to analyse discussions about Alzheimer's disease (AD) in China. Aims: We aimed to leverage multisource Chinese data to gain deeper insights into the current state of the daily management of Chinese patients with AD and the burdens faced by their caregivers. Methods: We searched nine mainstream public online platforms in China from September 2010 to March 2024. Natural language processing tools were used to identify patients and caregivers, and categorise patients by disease stage for further analysis. We analysed the current state of patient daily management, including diagnosis and treatment, choice of treatment scenarios, patient safety and caregiver concerns. Results: A total of 1211 patients with AD (66% female, 82% aged 60-90) and 756 caregivers for patients with AD were identified from 107 556 online sources. Most patients were derived from online consultation platforms (43%), followed by bulletin board system platforms (24%). Among the patients categorised into specific disease stages (n=382), 42% were in the moderate stage. The most frequent diagnostic tools included medical history (97%) and symptoms (84%). Treatment options for patients with AD primarily included cholinesterase inhibitors, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists and antipsychotics. Both quantitative and qualitative analysis of patients...