Using Text Mining to Compare Research to Practice in the Use of a Social Networking Platform for Pain Management of Genetic Disorders

Abstract

Social media allows for the creation of communities of interest around a wide variety of medical conditions; one example of which is pain management. Pain management is a critical portion of the overall healthcare system, as evidenced by the pervasive opioid crisis in the United States. One population that struggles with pain management is communities that experience genetic disorders. The goal of this paper is to examine the findings of the extant academic literature regarding pain management for genetic disorders on social media and compare it with the actual posting of people on social media in regard to their chronic pain and pain management. The authors used text mining techniques of the Brandwatch application to analyze the users' posts on different social media platforms such as online discussion forum, blog, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube, etc. The analysis demonstrates differences in the focus of scholarly inquiry regarding social media with user practice in relation to the topic of pain management.