ArticlePalliative medicine2021
Sadness, despair and anger when a patient dies alone from COVID-19: A thematic content analysis of Twitter data from bereaved family members and friends.
Article in Palliative medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 81 citations in OpenAlex.
- Psychological care in acute and emergency medicine: a scoping review of support interventions by healthcare professionals.BMC emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Unravelling the complexities: a scoping review of the collateral effects on bereaved relatives during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Exploring the psycho-social needs of families of COVID-19 victims and their reactions to health protocol adherence after bereavement: a qualitative study.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Caregiving burden, receipt of palliative care, and the use of bereavement support: secondary analysis of population-based data.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Supporting Family Caregivers of Nursing Home Residents with Dementia in Their Last Week of Life: A Survey Among Bereaved Family Caregivers.Palliative medicine reports · 2025Article
- Pain experiences during intrauterine device procedures: a thematic analysis of tweets.BMJ sexual & reproductive health · 2024Article
- Family Experiences of Loss and Bereavement in Palliative Care Units during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Interpretative Phenomenological Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- "Are you listening?": Experiences shared online by family caregivers of patients in the palliative phase during the Covid-19-pandemic.PloS one · 2024Article
- Article
- What Does "Palliative" Mean? Sentiment, Knowledge, and Public Perception Concerning Palliative Care on the Internet since the COVID-19 Pandemic.Palliative medicine reports · 2024Article
- Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on older cancer patients: Proposed solution by the International Geriatric Radiotherapy Group.Frontiers in oncology · 2023Article
- Support measures for the next of kin who has experienced the unexpected loss of a family member to HIV/AIDS.PloS one · 2023Article
- Risk factors associated with poorer experiences of end-of-life care and challenges in early bereavement: Results of a national online survey of people bereaved during the COVID-19 pandemic.Palliative medicine · 2022Article
- Identification of Digital Health Priorities for Palliative Care Research: Modified Delphi Study.JMIR aging · 2022Article
- Low and No-Contact Euthanasia: Associated Ethical Challenges Experienced by Veterinary Team Members during the Early Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Self-management experiences of youth following the unexpected loss of a family member to HIV.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2022Article
- 'It was brutal. It still is': a qualitative analysis of the challenges of bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic reported in two national surveys.Palliative care and social practice · 2022Article
- End-of-Life Experiences for Cancer Patients Dying in Hospital with COVID-19.Journal of patient experience · 2022Article
- A qualitative study of nursing practitioners' experiences with COVID-19 patients dying alone in Greece.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- How social media data are being used to research the experience of mourning: A scoping review.PloS one · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTo inform clinical practice and policy, it is essential to understand the lived experience of health and social care policies, including restricted visitation policies towards the end of life.
aimTo explore the views and experiences of Twitter social media users who reported that a relative, friend or acquaintance died of COVID-19 without a family member/friend present.
designQualitative content analysis of English-language tweets. DATA SOURCES: Twitter data collected 7-20th April 2020. A bespoke software system harvested selected publicly-available tweets from the Twitter application programming interface. After filtering we hand-screened tweets to include only those referring to a relative, friend or acquaintance who died alone of COVID-19. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis.
results9328 tweets were hand-screened; 196 were included. Twitter users expressed sadness, despair, hopelessness and anger about their experience and loss. Saying goodbye via video-conferencing technology was viewed ambivalently. Clinicians' presence during a death was little consolation. Anger, frustration and blame were directed at governments' inaction/policies or the public. The sadness of not being able to say goodbye as wished was compounded by lack of social support and disrupted after-death rituals. Users expressed a sense of political neglect/mistreatment alongside calls for action. They also used the platform to reinforce public health messages, express condolences and pay tribute.
conclusionTwitter was used for collective mourning and support and to promote public health messaging. End-of-life care providers should facilitate and optimise contact with loved ones, even when strict visitation policies are necessary, and provide proactive bereavement support.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.