ArticleBMC musculoskeletal disorders2024
Understanding public perceptions and discussions on diseases involving chronic pain through social media: cross-sectional infodemiology study.
Article in BMC musculoskeletal disorders, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- How Social Media Analysis Offers an Opportunity to Understand the Reality of People Living With Multiple Sclerosis: Descriptive French Study.JMIR infodemiology · 2026Article
- Pediatric Headache in the Age of Social Media: A Topical Review.Current pain and headache reports · 2026Review
- Multilingual analysis of public discourse on opioid and non-opioid analgesics through social media: a cross-sectional infodemiological study.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Article
- Exploring Pain on Social Media: Observational Study on Perceptions and Discussions of Chronic Pain Conditions.JMIR infodemiology · 2025Observational
- Social media as a source of information for patients with knee osteoarthritis.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2025Article
- Understanding social media discourse on antidepressants: unsupervised and sentiment analysis using X.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025Article
- Using Natural Language Processing and Social Media Data to Understand the Lived Experience of People with Fibromyalgia.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
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7 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundChronic pain is a highly prevalent medical condition that negatively impacts quality of life and is associated with considerable functional disability. Certain diseases, such as fibromyalgia, headache, paraplegia, neuropathy, and multiple sclerosis, manifest with chronic pain.
objectiveThe aim of this study is to examine the number and type of tweets (original or retweet) related to chronic pain, as well as to analyze the emotions and compare the societal impact of the diseases under study.
methodsWe investigated tweets posted between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2022, by Twitter users in English and Spanish, as well as the generated retweets. Additionally, emotions were extracted from these tweets and their diffusion was analyzed. Furthermore, the topics most frequently discussed by users were collected.
resultsA total of 72,874 tweets were analyzed, including 44,467 in English and 28,407 in Spanish. Paraplegia represented 23.3% with 16,461 of the classified tweets, followed by headache and fibromyalgia with 15,337 (21.7%) and 15,179 (21.5%) tweets, respectively. Multiple sclerosis generated 14,781 tweets (21%), and the fewest tweets were related to neuropathy with 8,830 tweets (12.5%). The results showed that the primary emotions extracted were "fear" and "sadness." Additionally, the reach and impact of these tweets were investigated through the generated retweets, with those related to headaches showing the highest interest and interaction among users.
conclusionOur results underscore the potential of leveraging social media for a better understanding of patients suffering from chronic pain and its impact on society. Among the most frequently encountered topics are those related to treatment, symptoms, or causes of the disease. Therefore, it is relevant to inform the patient to prevent misconceptions regarding their illness.
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