Evaluating Patient Experiences in Dry Eye Disease Through Social Media Listening Research

Autor: Nigel Cook, Anmol Mullins, Raju Gautam, Sharath Medi, Clementine Prince, Nishith Tyagi, Jyothi Kommineni
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2019
Předmět:
Zdroj: Ophthalmology and Therapy, Vol 8, Iss 3, Pp 407-420 (2019)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2193-8245
2193-6528
DOI: 10.1007/s40123-019-0188-4
Popis: Plain Language Summary Dry eye disease (DED) is a chronic health condition that affects a large number of people. The effects of DED can cause many problems in the lives of patients. Social media listening is an upcoming methodology which lends itself to researching how diseases can affect patients, by looking at what people discuss in online social media forums about their disease. The thoughts and opinions expressed openly by patients online distinguish this approach from traditional, structured and solicited patient research, and it is considered that the results of such social media listening studies should reflect spontaneous patient perspectives on their disease. In this study, patients’ internet social media posts about DED were identified using software through a keyword search and further analysed. It was found that most DED patients talked about their symptoms, causes, diagnosis and treatments when discussing DED. Most patients said they experienced eye dryness, pain and blurry vision. Daily activities like work and driving were all greatly affected by DED. Concerning what would make things better for them, patients mentioned the need for standard methods of diagnosing DED, better treatment options and need for a better awareness of the disease. Emotions expressed tended to be very negative, reflective of the impact of the disease on their lives. This study illustrates how DED negatively affects the lives of patients and highlights their unmet needs; it may help doctors, pharmaceutical companies and health insurance providers better understand the challenges faced by patients with this disease.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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