ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2022
Examining Tweet Content and Engagement of Users With Tweets About Hikikomori in Japanese: Mixed Methods Study of Social Withdrawal.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Global psychiatrists' opinions aboutPCN reports : psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2025Article
- Characterizing Experiences With Hikikomori Syndrome on Twitter Among Japanese-Language Users: Qualitative Infodemiology Content Analysis.JMIR infodemiology · 2025Article
- Analysis of the hikikomori phenomenon - an international infodemiology study of Twitter data in Portuguese.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Analyzing Psychotherapy on Twitter: An 11-Year Analysis of Tweets From Major U.S. Media Outlets.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHikikomori is a form of severe social withdrawal that is particularly prevalent in Japan. Social media posts offer insight into public perceptions of mental health conditions and may also inform strategies to identify, engage, and support hard-to-reach patient populations such as individuals affected by hikikomori.
objectiveIn this study, we seek to identify the types of content on Twitter related to hikikomori in the Japanese language and to assess Twitter users' engagement with that content.
methodsWe conducted a mixed methods analysis of a random sample of 4940 Japanese tweets from February to August 2018 using a hashtag (#hikikomori). Qualitative content analysis included examination of the text of each tweet, development of a codebook, and categorization of tweets into relevant codes. For quantitative analysis (n=4859 tweets), we used bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models, adjusted for multiple comparisons, and estimated the predicted probabilities of tweets receiving engagement (likes or retweets).
resultsOur content analysis identified 9 codes relevant to tweets about hikikomori: personal anecdotes, social support, marketing, advice, stigma, educational opportunities, refuge (ibasho), employment opportunities, and medicine and science. Tweets about personal anecdotes were the most common (present in 2747/4859, 56.53% of the tweets), followed by social support (902/4859, 18.56%) and marketing (624/4859, 12.84%). In the adjusted models, tweets coded as stigma had a lower predicted probability of likes (-33 percentage points, 95% CI -42 to -23 percentage points; P<.001) and retweets (-11 percentage points, 95% CI -18 to -4 percentage points; P<.001), personal anecdotes had a lower predicted probability of retweets (-8 percentage points, 95% CI -14 to -3 percentage points; P=.002), marketing had a lower predicted probability of likes (-13 percentage points, 95% CI -21 to -6 percentage points; P<.001), and social support had a higher predicted probability of retweets (+15 percentage points, 95% CI 6-24 percentage points; P=.001), compared with all tweets without each of these codes.
conclusionsJapanese tweets about hikikomori reflect a unique array of topics, many of which have not been identified in prior research and vary in their likelihood of receiving engagement. Tweets often contain personal stories of hikikomori, suggesting the potential to identify individuals with hikikomori through Twitter.
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