Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Feb 3;23(2):e26254.
doi: 10.2196/26254.

Using Twitter to Understand the COVID-19 Experiences of People With Dementia: Infodemiology Study

Juanita-Dawne Bacsu  1 , Megan E O'Connell  1 , Allison Cammer  2 , Mahsa Azizi  3 , Karl Grewal  1 , Lisa Poole  4 , Shoshana Green  1 , Saskia Sivananthan  5 , Raymond J Spiteri  3
Affiliations

Using Twitter to Understand the COVID-19 Experiences of People With Dementia: Infodemiology Study

Juanita-Dawne Bacsu et al. J Med Internet Res. .

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting people with dementia in numerous ways. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research on the COVID-19 impact on people with dementia and their care partners.

Objective: Using Twitter, the purpose of this study is to understand the experiences of COVID-19 for people with dementia and their care partners.

Methods: We collected tweets on COVID-19 and dementia using the GetOldTweets application in Python from February 15 to September 7, 2020. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the tweets.

Results: From the 5063 tweets analyzed with line-by-line coding, we identified 4 main themes including (1) separation and loss; (2) COVID-19 confusion, despair, and abandonment; (3) stress and exhaustion exacerbation; and (4) unpaid sacrifices by formal care providers.

Conclusions: There is an imminent need for governments to rethink using a one-size-fits-all response to COVID-19 policy and use a collaborative approach to support people with dementia. Collaboration and more evidence-informed research are essential to reducing COVID-19 mortality and improving the quality of life for people with dementia and their care partners.

Keywords: COVID-19; Twitter; collaborate; dementia; disorder; experience; health policy; quality of life; social media; support; theme.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

References

    1. Suárez-González A, Livingston G, Low LF, Cahill S, Hennelly N, Dawson WD, Weidner W, Bocchetta M, Ferri CP, Matias-Guiu JA, Alladi S, Musyimi CW, Comas-Herrera A. Impact and mortality of COVID-19 on people living with dementia: cross-country report. International Long-Term Care Policy Network. 2020. [2020-10-19]. https://ltccovid.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/International-report-on-....
    1. ONS report shows 52% increase in excess deaths of people dying of dementia – Alzheimer’s Society comments. Alzheimer's Society. 2020. [2020-10-23]. https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/news/2020-06-05/ons-report-shows-52-increa....
    1. COVID-19 deaths disproportionately affecting people with dementia. Alzheimer's Disease International. 2020. [2020-10-23]. https://www.alzint.org/news/covid-19-deaths-disproportionately-affecting...
    1. Azarpazhooh MR, Amiri A, Morovatdar N, Steinwender S, Rezaei Ardani A, Yassi N, Biller J, Stranges S, Tokazebani Belasi M, Neya SK, Khorram B, Sheikh Andalibi MS, Arsang-Jang S, Mokhber N, Di Napoli M. Correlations between COVID-19 and burden of dementia: an ecological study and review of literature. J Neurol Sci. 2020 Sep 15;416:117013. doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2020.117013. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/32659508 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Older adults. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2020. [2020-10-21]. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/older-a....