Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35713942›Full record

ArticleJMIR aging2022

Emotional Word Use in Informal Carers of People Living With Dementia: Linguistic Analysis of Online Discussion Forums.

Warren James Donnellan, Jasmine Grace Warren

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in JMIR aging, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Warren James Donnellan *Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0224-9155
Jasmine Grace WarrenDepartment of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6676-2954

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundInformal dementia care is uniquely stressful and necessitates effective methods of identifying and understanding the needs of potentially at-risk carers so that they can be supported and sustained in their roles. One such method is examining carers' engagement in online support platforms. Research has explored emotional word use on online discussion forums as a proxy for underlying emotional functioning. We are not aware of any research that has analyzed the content of posts on discussion forums specific to carers of people living with dementia in order to examine their emotional states.

objectiveWe addressed the following research questions: (1) To what extent does emotional language use differ between carers of people living with dementia and noncarers? (2) To what extent does emotional language use differ between spousal and parental carers? (3) To what extent does emotional language use differ between current and former carers?

methodsWe used the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program to examine emotional word use on a UK-based online forum for informal carers of people living with dementia and a discussion forum control group. Carers were separated into different subgroups for the analysis: current and former, and spousal and parental.

resultsWe found that carers of people living with dementia used significantly more negative, but not positive, emotion words than noncarers. Spousal carers used more emotion words overall than parental carers, specifically more negative emotion words. Former carers used more emotional words overall than current carers, specifically more positive words.

conclusionsThe findings suggest that informal carers of people living with dementia may be at increased risk of negative emotional states relative to noncarers. Greater negativity in spousal carers may be explained by increased caregiver burden, whereas greater positivity in former carers may be explained by functional relief of caregiving responsibilities. The theoretical/applied relevance of these findings is discussed.

Indexed as

agingdementiadementia caredigital healthelderly populationemotional languageemotional statesonline forumonline health

Identifiers

PMID35713942
PMCPMC9250063

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