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. 2025 Jul 1;15(1):21550.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-08599-7.

Sentiment analysis and topic modeling of social media data to explore public discourse on irritable bowel syndrome

Ravi Shankar  1   2 , Alexander Wenjun Yip  3   4
Affiliations

Sentiment analysis and topic modeling of social media data to explore public discourse on irritable bowel syndrome

Ravi Shankar et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder affecting 10-15% of the global population, characterized by abdominal pain, bloating, and altered bowel habits. This study aimed to analyze IBS-related discussions on X.com using sentiment analysis and topic modeling to understand patient experiences, concerns, and information needs from 2006 to 2024. A mixed-methods analysis of 12,345 IBS-related posts from X.com was conducted, collecting data using focused search terms ('IBS', 'irritable bowel syndrome', '#ibs', 'bowel syndrome'). After preprocessing, sentiment analysis was performed on 8,864 posts using the VADER algorithm. Topic modeling was conducted on 2,532 posts using Latent Dirichlet Allocation, focusing on posts with at least fifty words to ensure meaningful theme extraction. Sentiment analysis showed predominantly neutral (45.9%), positive (35.4%), and negative (18.7%) sentiments. Topic modeling revealed eight major themes: physical symptoms (15.6%), diet and triggers (15.1%), social support (14.2%), comorbidities (12.2%), research and treatment (12.2%), quality of life (12.0%), awareness (11.5%), and mental health (7.2%). Temporal analysis indicated increasing engagement with IBS-related content over time, suggesting growing public awareness and support needs. This study demonstrates the value of social media analysis in understanding IBS patient experiences and highlights the need for integrated care models addressing both physical and psychosocial aspects of the condition. The findings suggest healthcare providers should adopt more comprehensive, patient-centered approaches that consider the full spectrum of patient needs. Results underscore the importance of social media platforms in facilitating peer support and information sharing within the IBS community. Each identified theme offers specific clinical implications, from symptom management strategies to psychological support services. This study positions social media discourse analysis within the broader framework of patient-centered care, contributing to understanding how digital health communication can bridge the gap between clinical practice and lived patient experience in chronic illness.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics approval: This study analyzes publicly available social media posts from X.com, adhering to the platform’s terms of service and ethical guidelines for social media research. No personal identifiers were collected or stored, and all data were analyzed in aggregate form. While formal ethics approval was not required for public data analysis, we followed ethical principles for digital research, including respect for user privacy and responsible data handling.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Sentiment scores of IBS-related posts on X.com from 2006 to 2024.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Sentiment distribution and polarity-subjectivity scatter plot of IBS-related posts on X.com.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Intertopic distance map of themes identified in IBS-related posts on X.com.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Relative importance of key terms across the topics in IBS-related posts.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
LDA Topic-specific sentiment distribution in IBS-related social media posts.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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