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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Primary Immunodeficiencies
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1467852

Sentiment Analysis of Subcutaneous and Intravenous Immunoglobulin Therapy: A Patient Satisfaction View Through Social Media Discourse

Provisionally accepted
Alejandro Tarango Garcia Alejandro Tarango Garcia 1*Silvia Rodríguez-Narciso Silvia Rodríguez-Narciso 2Netzahualcóyotl Castañeda-Leyva Netzahualcóyotl Castañeda-Leyva 2*Hannia M. Prieto-Nevárez Hannia M. Prieto-Nevárez 3*Saul O. Lugo Reyes Saul O. Lugo Reyes 4Francisco J. Espinoza-Rosales Francisco J. Espinoza-Rosales 5*Sara Elva Espinosa Sara Elva Espinosa 4Aidé T. Staines-Boone Aidé T. Staines-Boone 6*Luis F. Torres-Bernal Luis F. Torres-Bernal 7*Aristóteles Álvarez-Cardona Aristóteles Álvarez-Cardona 8*
  • 1 Centenario Hospital Miguel Hidalgo, Aguascalientes, Mexico
  • 2 Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, Mexico
  • 3 Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico
  • 4 National Institute of Pediatrics (Mexico), Mexico City, México, Mexico
  • 5 Immunology, Allergy and Pediatrics Center, Angeles Lomas Hospital, Mexico City, Mexico
  • 6 Immunology Department, "Unidad Médica de Alta Especialidad" # 25, IMSS, Monterrey, Mexico
  • 7 INOVA Vision Institute, Aguascalientes, Mexico
  • 8 Unidad de Investigación en Inmunología Clínica y Alergia Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, Mexico

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Purpose: Immunoglobulin replacement therapy remains a cornerstone of treatment in antibody deficiencies and other inborn errors of immunity. While patient preferences between subcutaneous and intravenous immunoglobulin have been studied through questionnaires, no study has yet explored patient perspectives in a free environment. Therefore, we aimed to conduct a sentiment analysis as well as a temporal and geographical analysis on public opinions obtained from social media to better understand patient satisfaction and public perception on immunoglobulin therapy. Methods: A dataset of 43,700 tweets spanning from the 1st of January of 2012 to the 31st of December of 2022 was obtained. A Valence Aware Dictionary for Sentiment Reasoning sentiment analysis was performed, followed by statistical, geographical and temporal analyses. Results: Mean polarity of intravenous immunoglobulin related tweets was 0.1295 (positive), while mean polarity for subcutaneous immunoglobulin was 0.2117 (positive). Temporal analysis through a statistical model demonstrated that the volume of tweets increased over time for both subcutaneous and intravenous treatment. Geographical analysis revealed that the majority of texts originated from the United States. The highest mean polarity was observed in Romania with a mean value of 0.2966, while the lowest polarity was documented in Norway with a mean of -0.0211. Conclusion: Tweets linked to subcutaneous immunoglobulin treatment had a higher average polarity, indicating a more positive public perception. The amount of tweets relating to both therapies showed a tendency to increase as the years progressed, implying an increase in public discussion on immunoglobulin treatment.

    Keywords: Natural Language Processing, Social Media, Immunoglobulins, Primary Immunodeficiencies, sentiment analysis

    Received: 21 Jul 2024; Accepted: 06 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Tarango Garcia, Rodríguez-Narciso, Castañeda-Leyva, Prieto-Nevárez, Lugo Reyes, Espinoza-Rosales, Espinosa, Staines-Boone, Torres-Bernal and Álvarez-Cardona. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Alejandro Tarango Garcia, Centenario Hospital Miguel Hidalgo, Aguascalientes, Mexico
    Netzahualcóyotl Castañeda-Leyva, Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, 20131, Aguascalientes, Mexico
    Hannia M. Prieto-Nevárez, Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Chihuahua, 31000, Chihuahua, Mexico
    Francisco J. Espinoza-Rosales, Immunology, Allergy and Pediatrics Center, Angeles Lomas Hospital, Mexico City, Mexico
    Aidé T. Staines-Boone, Immunology Department, "Unidad Médica de Alta Especialidad" # 25, IMSS, Monterrey, Mexico
    Luis F. Torres-Bernal, INOVA Vision Institute, Aguascalientes, Mexico
    Aristóteles Álvarez-Cardona, Unidad de Investigación en Inmunología Clínica y Alergia Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, Mexico

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.