Reddit users' questions and concerns about glaucoma.

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to analyze the discussions of glaucoma patients on the Reddit forum /r/Glaucoma to identify key concerns and explore how these insights can inform clinical practice.

Methods: Posts published on the Reddit forum /r/Glaucoma were used for analysis. Big Query was used to collect posts from /r/Glaucoma. We collected 1593 posts published between the years 2018 and 2019. We collected a control group of 4779 posts from a Reddit forum not related to Glaucoma (/r/AskReddit). Using latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) we extracted 30 topics from our data set. The LDA topic themes most associated with posts in /r/Glaucoma compared to the control group were determined.

Results: LDA analysis of posts in /r/Glaucoma relative to a control group produced 8 distinct categories of posts: "prognosis, diagnostics, medication, optometry role, symptoms, personal inquiries, research, and financial burden." The posts most associated with /r/Glaucoma when compared to a control group were posts belonging to the "Prognosis" category (Cohen's d = 1.26) while the posts least associated with /r/Glaucoma were from the "Financial Burden" category of posts (Cohen's d = -0.12). Example experiences from members of the /r/Glaucoma forum highlight the questions and concerns of patients on the forum.

Conclusion: Discussions regarding patient questions and concerns about glaucoma care on the social media site Reddit provide essential insights into the shared experiences patients face while managing their condition. Ophthalmologists can mitigate patient uncertainty by both providing verified physician insights on Reddit as well as incorporating Reddit discussion themes directly in their clinical practice.