Understanding Language Features in Loneliness Forum Posts that Elicit Comments (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anietie Andy
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Cohen’S D ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Cohen's D ◽  
To Receive

BACKGROUND Loneliness is a threat to the well-being of individuals and in older adults is associated with increased risk of early mortality. Studies have shown that some individuals seek support around loneliness on online forums/social media platforms. A common challenge in online forums is that some posts do not receive comments. In some non-health related forums, posts not receiving comments may not be a serious concern, however, in an online health forum such as those focused on discussions around loneliness, posts not receiving comments could translate to individuals seeking support around loneliness not receiving adequate support. OBJECTIVE The aim of this work is to analyze posts published on an active online forum focused on discussions around loneliness (loneliness forum) to determine the language features associated with posts that elicit comments from members of the forum. METHODS For the analysis in this work, 15,012 posts published on an online loneliness forum by 9,956 users were analyzed. Of these posts, 6,450 received five or more comments, 13,221 received one or more comments, and 1,791 received no comments. Using the natural language processing method, latent dirichlet allocation (LDA) and a psycholinguistic dictionary, Linguistics Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), the language features expressed in posts that elicit comments from members of the forum were determined. RESULTS The findings from this work show that posts related to topics themes on relationships (Cohen’s D = 0.319) and the use of negation words (Cohen’s D = 0.149) tend to receive one or more comments. Also, posts associated with LIWC categories on first person singular pronouns (Cohen’s D = 0.264) tend to elicit one or more comments. Posts on topic themes related to spending time around holidays/birthdays/year/time of day or week (Cohen’s D = 0.79) and affection relative to relationships (Cohen’s D = 0.102) tend to receive five or more comments. CONCLUSIONS This work identifies language features expressed in loneliness forum posts that elicit comments. The findings from this work can provide members of online loneliness forums tips on how to write posts that potentially elicit comments from members of the forum.

scholarly journals Studying how individuals who express the feeling of loneliness in an online loneliness forum communicate in a non-loneliness forum: An Observational Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anietie Andy
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Cohen’S D ◽  
Linguistic Inquiry Word Count ◽  
Cohen's D

BACKGROUND Loneliness is a public health concern and increasingly individuals experiencing loneliness are seeking support on online forums - some of which focus on discussions around loneliness (loneliness forum). Loneliness may influence how individuals express themselves and interact with others in different settings or forums not related to loneliness or well-being (non-loneliness forums). Hence, in order to design and implement appropriate and efficient online loneliness interventions, it is important to understand how individuals who express loneliness on online loneliness forums communicate in non-loneliness forums they belong; this could provide insights into the support needs of these users. OBJECTIVE This work studies how users who express the feeling of loneliness in an online loneliness forum communicate in an online non-loneliness forum. METHODS 2,401 users who expressed loneliness in posts published on a loneliness forum on Reddit and had published posts in a non-loneliness forum were identified. Using a natural language processing method, Latent dirichlet allocation (LDA), a psycholinguistic dictionary, Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC), and the word-score based language features: valence, arousal, and dominance, we determine the language use differences in posts published in the non-loneliness forum by these users compared to a control group of users who did not belong to any loneliness forum on Reddit. RESULTS We find that in posts published in the non-loneliness forum, users who expressed loneliness tend to use more words associated with the LIWC categories on sadness (cohen’s d =0.10) and seeking to socialize (cohen’s d =0.114) and use words associated with valence (cohen’s d=0.364) and dominance (cohen’s d = 0.117); also, they tend to publish posts related to LDA topics such as relationships (cohen’s d= 0.105) and family and friends / mental health (cohen’s d = 0.10). CONCLUSIONS There are clear distinctions in language use in non-loneliness forum posts by users who express loneliness compared to a control group of users. These findings can help with the design and implementation of online interventions around loneliness.

Is Three a Crowd? The Influence of Companions on a Patient’s Decision to Transition to a Biosimilar

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Gasteiger ◽  
Katie M Groom ◽  
Maria Lobo ◽  
Urte Scholz ◽  
Nicola Dalbeth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Decisional Conflict ◽  
Clinical Trial Registry ◽  
Additional Time ◽  
Support Person ◽  
Cohen’S D ◽  
Practical Support ◽  
Cohen's D ◽  
To Receive

Abstract Background Involving patients in treatment decisions is commonplace in healthcare, and patients are frequently accompanied by a companion (support person). Companions are often actively involved in medical consultations, yet their impact on decisions to change medications is unknown. Purpose This study examines the influence of companions on a patient’s decision to transition from their bio-originator therapy to a biosimilar. Methods A parallel, two-arm randomized controlled trial was conducted with 79 patients taking a bio-originator for rheumatic diseases who regularly attend clinic with a companion. Patients were randomized to receive an explanation about a hypothetical transition to a biosimilar alone or with their companion. Patients reported willingness to transition, risk perceptions, difficulty understanding, social support, and completed the Decisional Conflict Scale and Satisfaction with Decision Scale. Results Companions did not influence decisions to transition to biosimilars or cognitive and affective risk perceptions. Accompanied patients reported more difficulty understanding the explanation (p = .006, Cohen’s d = .64) but thought it was more important to receive information with companions (p = .023, Cohen’s d = −.52). Companions did not impact decision satisfaction or decisional conflict. Receiving emotional, but not practical support, was associated with less decisional conflict in accompanied patients (p = .038, r  2 = 0.20). Conclusions The presence of companions does not seem to influence risk perceptions or decisions about transitioning to biosimilars. Companions, however, impact the patient’s reporting of their ability to understand treatment explanations. Providers should check understanding in all patients but may need to provide additional time or educational resources to accompanied patients and companions. Trial registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry: ACTRN12619001435178.

A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study using Mind–Body Interventions among Refugees in Sweden

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
Kevin M. Cloninger ◽  
Alexandre Granjard ◽  
Nigel Lester ◽  
Erik Lindskär ◽  
Patricia Rosenberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Positive Affect ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Harm Avoidance ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Cohen’S D ◽  
Coaching Intervention ◽  
Self Transcendence ◽  
Cohen's D

Background: Migration is one of the major challenges of the 21st century with many refugees being victims of torture and experiencing war and the collapse of their society. Sweden, for example, received about 169,520 refugees during 2015 and 20–30% of them were estimated to suffer from mental illness. Nevertheless, research shows that about 66.40% of refugees never reveal their traumatic experiences to a doctor and a majority refuse psychiatric help. Hence, we need innovative methods to promote the physical, mental, and social health of refugees. Objective: We examined the effects of Anthropedia’s Well-Being Coaching (i.e., a biopsychosocial approach to coaching) and Well-Being Spa (i.e., modern version of age-old Spa interventions) on the personality and health of a sample of refugees living in Sweden. Methodology: Participants were recruited as part of a health and employment project in Blekinge, Sweden. A total of 70 Syrian refugees were randomly assigned to a six-month intervention comprising either Well-Being Coaching, or Well-Being Spa, or both (i.e., Mind–Body). The participants reported personality (temperament and character), well-being (positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, and harmony in life), and ill-being (defeat and entrapment, and anxiety and depression) at the beginning and at the end of the six-month intervention period. Results: Participants assigned to the Well-Being Coaching intervention showed increases in self-directedness (Cohen’s d = 0.84), cooperativeness (Cohen’s d = 0.36), positive affect (Cohen’s d = 0.43), and life satisfaction (Cohen’s d = 0.56), and decreases in both negative affect (Cohen’s d = 0.38) and defeat (Cohen’s d = 0.89). Participants assigned to the Well-Being Spa intervention showed decreases in harm avoidance (Cohen’s d = 0.55), reward dependence (Cohen’s d = 0.69), negative affect (Cohen’s d = 0.82), anxiety (Cohen’s d = 0.53), defeat (Cohen’s d = 0.34), and external entrapment (Cohen’s d = 0.42). Participants assigned to the Mind–Body intervention showed significant decreases in harm avoidance (Cohen’s d = 0.47), anxiety (Cohen’s d = 0.61), depression (Cohen’s d = 0.34), defeat (Cohen’s d = 0.56), external entrapment (Cohen’s d = 0.44), and internal entrapment (Cohen’s d = 0.79) and increases in persistence (Cohen’s d = 0.27), self-directedness (Cohen’s d = 0.28), cooperativeness (Cohen’s d = 0.43), self-transcendence (Cohen’s d = 0.51), positive affect (Cohen’s d = 0.42), and harmony in life (Cohen’s d = 0.36). Conclusions: The results of the present study suggest that Well-Being Coaching strengthens refugees’ character, while the Well-Being Spa treatments reduced participants’ tendency to worry and anxiety. Finally, the combination of these two interventions seems to promote the development of health-related traits, reduce ill-health, and stress, and increase well-being in a wider biopsychosocial perspective.

Randomized Trial of PMTO in Foster Care: Six-Month Child Well-Being Outcomes

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Becci A. Akin ◽  
Kyle Lang ◽  
Thomas P. McDonald ◽  
Yueqi Yan ◽  
Todd Little
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Analysis Of Covariance ◽  
High Risk Population ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Prosocial Skills ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Cohen’S D ◽  
Children In Foster Care ◽  
Cohen's D

Objective: This study tested the effectiveness of Parent Management Training, Oregon (PMTO) model on child social–emotional well-being. Methods: Using a randomized controlled design and three measures of social–emotional well-being, the study investigated effectiveness of PMTO with families of children in foster care with serious emotional disturbance (SED). Participants included children (3–16 years) and parents who were randomly assigned to PMTO ( n = 461) or services as usual ( n = 457). Study condition was known to participants and assessors. Six months after baseline, analysis of covariance models examined the intervention’s overall effect and time interactions using intent-to-treat analysis. Follow-up analyses identified salient predictors of well-being. Results: PMTO demonstrated small but significant positive effects on three primary outcomes: social–emotional functioning (Cohen’s d = .31), problem behaviors (Cohen’s d = .09), and prosocial skills (Cohen’s d = .09). Conclusion: Results suggest that PMTO was effective at improving short-term social–emotional well-being in a high-risk population of children with SED.

scholarly journals The Impact of Social Media Platforms on Self-Injurious Behavior in Adolescents

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 156-174
Author(s):  
N.A. Polskaya ◽  
D.K. Yakubovskaya
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
Self Injury ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Self Harm ◽  
The Impact ◽  
To Receive

The paper provides a review of studies on non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in online social networking. Content characteristics of online self-injury narrative are examined by focusing on such categories as hashtags, images, and comments. Negative and positive aspects of social networks’ impact on the risk of self-injury in adolescent are summarized. The presence of NSSI content online and the ability to communicate on issues relating to self-injury can either improve psychological well-being of the users by increasing their mood and self-acceptance, giving means to receive support from others and get information on mental health resources, or increase the person’s susceptibility to self-injuries by initiating their interest in this subject and reinforcing, and encouraging repeated self-harm. Therefore, mental health professionals are facing a global challenge: to create supportive and helpful online content, which implies the development of a new methodology, including language and terminology, that could integrate existing online discourse on self-injury and transform it from within.

scholarly journals The impact of a community based rehabilitation program in Afghanistan: a longitudinal analysis using propensity score matching and difference in difference analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Francois Trani ◽  
Juanita Vasquez-Escallon ◽  
Parul Bakhshi
Keyword(s):  
Daily Living ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Medium Effect ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Cohen’S D ◽  
Community Based Rehabilitation ◽  
Medium Effect Size ◽  
Cohen's D ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background The 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states that the achievement of equal rights, empowerment and social inclusion of people with disabilities requires comprehensive rehabilitation services encompassing all components of the World Health Organization Community based rehabilitation (CBR) matrix: health, education, livelihood, social and empowerment. CBR programs specifically aim to deliver such comprehensive interventions. In the present study, we investigate the impact of a CBR program in Afghanistan on all these components. Methods We enrolled 1861 newly recruited CBR participants with disabilities in the study, from 169 villages between July 2012 and December 2013 as well as 1132 controls with disabilities randomly selected through a two-stage process within 6000 households from 100 villages in the same provinces but outside the catchment area of the CBR program. We interviewed them again after one (midline) and two (end-line) years in the study. Using propensity score matching and difference in difference analysis, we estimated the impact of the CBR on outcomes of interest, namely mobility, activities of daily living, communication, participation in social and community life, emotional well-being and employment. Results Three years on average into the CBR program, participants showed a significant and close to medium effect size reduction in emotional (Cohen’s d = − 0.48, 95%CI[− 0.58--0.38]), and social participation challenges (Cohen’s d = − 0.45, 95%CI[− 0.53−− 0.36]); small to medium effect size reduction in unemployment (Cohen’s d = − 0.21, 95%CI[− 0.33--0.10]), activities of daily living (Cohen’s d = − 0.26, 95%CI[− 0.35--0.18]), mobility (Cohen’s d = − 0.36, 95%CI[− 0.44--.29]) and communication challenges (Cohen’s d = − 0.38, 95%CI[− 0.46--0.3]). Conclusions Our study indicates that a CBR program may provide positive rehabilitation outcomes for persons with disabilities even in a conflict context, and improve overall well-being of all participants with disabilities, whatever their impairment, individual characteristics and the CBR matrix components considered. Trial registration ISRCTN, ISRCTN50214054. Registered August 5th 2020 - retrospectively registered

scholarly journals Dancing With Health: Quality of Life and Physical Improvements From an EU Collaborative Dance Programme With Women Following Breast Cancer Treatment

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicky Karkou ◽  
Irene Dudley-Swarbrick ◽  
Jennifer Starkey ◽  
Ailsa Parsons ◽  
Supritha Aithal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Radiation Treatment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Dance Movement ◽  
Cohen’S D ◽  
Cohen's D

Background: Women's health has received renewed attention in the last few years including health rehabilitation options for women affected by breast cancer. Dancing has often been regarded as one attractive option for supporting women's well-being and health, but research with women recovering from breast cancer is still in its infancy. Dancing with Health is multi-site pilot study that aimed to evaluate a dance programme for women in recovery from breast cancer across five European countries.Methods: A standardized 32 h dance protocol introduced a range of Latin American dances presented within a sports and exercise framework with influences from dance movement therapy. Fifty-four women (M age 53.51; SD 7.99) participated in the study who had a breast cancer diagnosis <3 years, chemotherapy >6 weeks, no indication of metastasis, or scheduled surgery/chemotherapy/radiation treatment for the duration of the intervention. Primary outcome data was collected for anthropometric and fitness measures next to cancer-related quality of life. T-tests and Wilcoxon signed ranked tests were used to establish differences pre and post intervention. Cohen's d was also calculated to determine the effect size of the intervention.Results: Statistically significant changes were found for: (i) weight, right and left forearm circumference and hip; (ii) 6 min walking, right and left handgrip, sit-to-stand and sit-and-reach; (iii) the EORTC-QLQ C30 summary score as well as the subscales of emotional and social functioning and symptoms. In all cases the direction of change was positive, while Cohen's d calculated showed that the effect of the intervention for these parameters ranged from intermediate to large.Conclusion: Changes on the above anthropometric, fitness and quality of life measures suggest that the intervention was of value to the participating women recovering from breast cancer. Results also advocate collaborative efforts across countries to further research.

scholarly journals Comorbidity of Physical and Anxiety Symptoms in Adolescent: Functional Impairment, Self-Rated Health and Subjective Well-Being

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 1698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judit Balázs ◽  
Mónika Miklósi ◽  
Agnes Keresztény ◽  
Christina Hoven ◽  
Vladimir Carli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Impairment ◽  
Physical Disability ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Physical Symptoms ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Self Rated Health ◽  
Cohen’S D ◽  
Physical Disorders ◽  
Cohen's D

Physical disorders and anxiety are frequently comorbid. This study investigates the characteristics of physical disorders, self-rated heath, subjective well-being and anxiety in adolescents. Data were drawn from the Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe cohort study. From 11 countries 11,230 adolescents, aged 14–16 years were included. Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), WHO-5 Well-Being Index and five questions prepared for this study to evaluate physical illnesses and self-rated heath were administered. Anxiety levels were significantly higher in adolescents who reported having physical disability (p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.40), suffering from chronic illnesses (p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.40), impairments associated to health conditions (p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.61), or reported poor to very poor self-rated health (p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 1.11). Mediational analyses revealed no direct effect of having a chronic illness/physical disability on subjective well-being, but the indirect effects through higher levels of anxiety were significant. Functional impairment related to health conditions was both directly and indirectly (through higher levels of anxiety) associated with lower well-being. The co-occurrence of anxiety and physical disorders may confer a greater level of disability and lower levels of subjective well-being. Clinicians have to screen anxiety, even in a subthreshold level in patients with choric physical illness or with medically unexplained physical symptoms.

scholarly journals Leveraging Natural Language Processing to Understand Public Outlook Towards the Influenza Vaccination

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ankita Agarwal ◽  
William Romine ◽  
Tanvi Banerjee
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Temporal Trend ◽  
Healthcare Management ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Vaccine Preventable Diseases ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Flu Vaccine

<div>Understanding public outlook in healthcare management is important in the study of the various diseases. With respect to vaccinations, which play a major role in combating vaccine-preventable diseases, the study on their acceptance or rejection by the public becomes useful. In particular to the</div><div>influenza vaccine, studies on the public opinion and views is ongoing. Social media platforms like Twitter help us to leverage thoughts and attitudes related to the flu vaccine. The data set used for our analysis contained tweets related to vaccines which were collected using vaccine-related keywords over a period of twelve months from February, 2018 to January, 2019. Out of these tweets, we filtered out the tweets specific to the flu vaccine and generated our corpus for further study. By using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), we identified eighteen topics comprising six major themes which best represented our corpus. In this paper, we discuss these six themes and subsequently analyze the trend observed in these themes over a period of twelve months. The themes identified covered various aspects related to the flu vaccine. Among the six major themes, four showed a distinctive temporal trend with respect to the annual flu season.</div><div><br></div>

scholarly journals Stress Detection using Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning over social Interactions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya Nijhawan ◽  
Girija Attigeri ◽  
Ananthakrishna T
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Textual Data ◽  
The Status ◽  
Micro Level

Abstract Cyberspace is a vast soapbox for people to post anything that they witness in their day-to-day lives. Subsequently, it can be used as a very effective tool in detecting the stress levels of an individual based on the posts and comments shared by him/her on social networking platforms. We leverage large-scale datasets with tweets to successfully accomplish sentiment analysis with the aid of machine learning algorithms. We take the help of a capable deep learning pre-trained model called BERT to solve the problems which come with sentiment classification. The BERT model outperforms a lot of other well-known models for this job without any sophisticated architecture. We also adopted Latent Dirichlet Allocation which is an unsupervised machine learning method that’s skilled in scanning a group of documents, recognizing the word and phrase patterns within them, and gathering word groups and alike expressions that most precisely illustrate a set of documents. This helps us predict which topic is linked to the textual data. With the aid of the models suggested, we will be able to detect the emotion of users online. We are primarily working with Twitter data because Twitter is a website where people express their thoughts often. In conclusion, this proposal is for the well- being of one’s mental health. The results are evaluated using various metric at macro and micro level and indicate that the trained model detects the status of emotions bases on social interactions.

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