Social Media Analysis Highlights Seasonal Pollen Impact

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Twitter data from 2006 to 2022 were used to examine public comments on pollen-related symptoms and their implications for public health awareness. Using advanced data analysis methods, investigators were able to identify trends in respiratory allergies, which showed an increase in discussions and symptoms, especially in the mornings.

These results suggest that monitoring social media for allergy-related posts could help develop targeted, preventive measures to reduce pollen allergy impacts, promote health equity and improve access to information.

“Allergy disorders caused by biological particles, such as the proteins in some airborne pollen grains, are currently considered one of the most common chronic diseases, and European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology forecasts indicate that within 15 years 50% of Europeans will have some kind of allergy as a consequence of urbanization, industrialization, pollution and climate change,” wrote a group of international investigators led by Martín Pérez-Pérez, PhD, of the Department of Computer Science, School of Computer Engineering, at the University of Vigo, Spain.

In addition to medications, immunotherapy and other preventative measures, the timing of symptomatology can be used determine prevention strategies. In recent years, investigators have used social networks to assess the trends, ideas and thoughts of users on a variety of topics, including COVID-19 and Alzheimer’s disease.

In the current study, investigators monitored and assessed the dissemination of information surrounding pollen symptoms, as well as the impact on public health awareness, by performing a comprehensive review of comments on Twitter (subsequently rebranded X) using a complex mix of language models and visual representations. This strategy helped to identify any significant themes and patterns that emerged to better understand public knowledge and discussions about respiratory allergies on the social media platform.

A total of 4.6 million messages were initially included, with 30% deemed relevant to health. The most frequently mentioned medical conditions were watery eyes, runny nose, headache, migraine, cough, asthma and hay fever. The analysis showed a predominantly negative sentiment towards these symptoms and allergies.

Findings also revealed the months between March and August demonstrated the highest volume of messages, which significantly increased during the later years of the analysis. Additionally, there was an increase in the prevalence of symptoms—particularly in the morning hours—which could indicate a rise in pollen allergies as well as social media discussions.

Although pollen allergy is considered a global issue, investigators emphasized that patients experience symptomatology at a localized level due to sociocultural, political and economic factors, and encouraged appropriate localized responses.

The use of publicly available data on Twitter allowed investigators to assess a large and diverse sample of individuals, which helped to facilitate a deeper understanding of awareness and public sentiment. However, investigators warned that the information collected may not accurately represent the depth and breadth of discussions, and inherent biases, such as fluctuations in engagement and platform popularity, could have impacted the results. Additionally, generalizability could be hindered due to language and geographical biases. However, as the data used in the assessment was voluntary in nature, investigators believe the information accurately reflects patient experiences and concerns.

“The primary value of tweets is the insights that they provide into human behavior and thought processes; people share their genuine, spontaneous experiences related to pollen, providing information that would otherwise be difficult to obtain,” investigators concluded. “In this sense, this study provides a detailed understanding from various perspectives of how pollen allergies are discussed on Twitter.”