Understanding the #longCOVID and #longhaulers Conversation on Twitter: Multimethod Study

Abstract

Background: The scientific community is just beginning to uncover the potential long-term effects of COVID-19, and one way to start gathering information is by examining the present discourse on the topic. The conversation about long COVID-19 on Twitter provides insight into related public perception and personal experiences. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the #longCOVID and #longhaulers conversations on Twitter by examining the combined effects of topic discussion and social network analysis for discovery on long COVID-19. Methods: A multipronged approach was used to analyze data (N=2500 records from Twitter) about long COVID-19 and from people experiencing long COVID-19. A text analysis was performed by both human coders and Netlytic, a cloud-based text and social networks analyzer. The social network analysis generated Name and Chain networks that showed connections and interactions between Twitter users. Results: Among the 2010 tweets about long COVID-19 and 490 tweets by COVID-19 long haulers, 30,923 and 7817 unique words were found, respectively. For both conversation types, "#longcovid"and "covid"were the most frequently mentioned words; however, through visually inspecting the data, words relevant to having long COVID-19 (ie, symptoms, fatigue, pain) were more prominent in tweets by COVID-19 long haulers. When discussing long COVID-19, the most prominent frames were "support"(1090/1931, 56.45%) and "research"(435/1931, 22.53%). In COVID-19 long haulers conversations, "symptoms"(297/483, 61.5%) and "building a community"(152/483, 31.5%) were the most prominent frames. The social network analysis revealed that for both tweets about long COVID-19 and tweets by COVID-19 long haulers, networks are highly decentralized, fragmented, and loosely connected. Conclusions: This study provides a glimpse into the ways long COVID-19 is framed by social network users. Understanding these perspectives may help generate future patient-centered research questions.