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. 2019 Feb 11;5(1):00128-2018.
doi: 10.1183/23120541.00128-2018. eCollection 2019 Feb.

Patients' perspectives on COPD: findings from a social media listening study

Nigel S Cook  1 , Konstantinos Kostikas  1 , Jean-Bernard Gruenberger  1 , Bhavik Shah  2 , Purnima Pathak  2 , Vinay Preet Kaur  2 , Alaknanda Mudumby  2 , Rajat Sharma  2 , Florian S Gutzwiller  1
Affiliations

Patients' perspectives on COPD: findings from a social media listening study

Nigel S Cook et al. ERJ Open Res. .

Abstract

We utilised social media listening (SML) to obtain patients' perspectives on symptoms, diagnosis and comorbidities associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and its impact on patients' quality of life (QoL). A comprehensive search on social media platforms was performed for English language content posted between July 2016 and January 2018 using COPD-related terms. Social Studio, a social media data aggregator tool, was used to capture relevant records. The content was manually curated to analyse and map psychological aspects with descriptive statistics applied on aggregated findings. A total of 849 posts from patients or caregivers ("patient insights") were considered for the analysis, corresponding to postings of 695 unique individuals. Based on 734 mentions of symptoms from 849 posts by potential patients/caregivers, cough (27%), mucus (25%) and shortness of breath (21%) were the most frequent; analysis by perceived COPD severity indicated these to be common across all severities. Difficulty in mucus clearance (24% of 268 mentions) and sadness (40% of 129 mentions) were top among the aspects impacting physical and emotional QoL, respectively. SML from patients with COPD indicated that relief from cough, mucus production and shortness of breath would be the most desirable aspects of disease management from a patient's perspective.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: N.S. Cook is an employee and shareholder of Novartis. Conflict of interest: K. Kostikas is an employee and shareholder of Novartis. Conflict of interest: J-B. Gruenberger is an employee and shareholder of Novartis. Conflict of interest: B. Shah is an employee of Novartis. Conflict of interest: P. Pathak is an employee of Novartis. Conflict of interest: V.P. Kaur is an employee of Novartis. Conflict of interest: A. Mudumby is an employee of Novartis. Conflict of interest: R. Sharma is an employee of Novartis. Conflict of interest: F.S. Gutzwiller is an employee and shareholder of Novartis.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Categorisation of social media posts related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). #: based on article ID, social media link and/or content (e.g. posts with similar content on different social media or re-post by the same user identifiable by content); : description about patients’ perceptions of various aspects of COPD, mainly including, but not limited to, symptoms, diagnosis, management and its impact on their quality of life by “patients” or caregivers was qualified as “patients’ insights”; +: includes users such as healthcare professionals, media reporters, industry personnel, bloggers or nondefined.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Mention of common symptoms for a) potential patients or caregivers (n=734 mentions, based on 849 posts) and b) “other” users (n=170 mentions, based on 1179 posts).
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Mention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) symptoms by perceived “severity”.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Mention of aspects pertaining to: a) physical quality of life (n=268 mentions) and b) emotional quality of life (n=129 mentions). #: includes chest tightness, hospitalisation and wheezing.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Digital touch points along the patient journey. HCP: healthcare professional; COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; FEV: forced expiratory volume; CXR: chest radiography; CT: computed tomography; QoL: quality of life; ER: emergency room.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
A “word cloud” created from collected posts.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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