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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Autism
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1441349
This article is part of the Research Topic Improving Outcomes in Autism Spectrum Disorders for Adults View all 3 articles

Sentiment Analysis of Post-COVID-19 Health Information Needs of Autism Spectrum Disorder Community: Insights from Social Media Discussions

Provisionally accepted
Ebenezer Larnyo Ebenezer Larnyo 1*Jonathan A. Nutakor Jonathan A. Nutakor 2Stephen Addai-Dansoh Stephen Addai-Dansoh 2Edmund N. Nkrumah Edmund N. Nkrumah 3
  • 1 Center for Black Studies Research, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, United States
  • 2 Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China
  • 3 Nobel International Business School, South Legon, Ghana

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

    This study explores the health information needs of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their caregivers in the post-COVID-19 era by analyzing discussions from Reddit, a popular social media platform. Utilizing a mixed-method approach that integrates qualitative content analysis with quantitative sentiment analysis, we analyzed user-generated content from the "r/autism" subreddit to identify recurring themes and sentiments. The qualitative analysis uncovered key themes, including symptoms, diagnostic challenges, caregiver experiences, treatment options, and stigma, reflecting the diverse concerns within the ASD community. The quantitative sentiment analysis revealed a predominance of positive sentiment across discussions, although significant instances of neutral and negative sentiments were also present, indicating varied experiences and perspectives among community members. Among the machine learning models used for sentiment classification, the Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory (Bi-LSTM) model achieved the highest performance, demonstrating a validation accuracy of 95.74%. The findings highlight the need for improved digital platforms and community resources to address the specific health information needs of the ASD community, particularly in enhancing access to reliable information and fostering supportive environments. These insights can guide future interventions and policies aimed at improving the well-being of autistic persons and their caregivers.

    Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Health information needs, social media analysis, sentiment analysis, community support, technological solutions, Post-COVID-19

    Received: 30 May 2024; Accepted: 20 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Larnyo, Nutakor, Addai-Dansoh and Nkrumah. 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: Ebenezer Larnyo, Center for Black Studies Research, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, United States

    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.