Sudden sensorineural hearing loss: what can we learn from examining Reddit posts?

Social Media Utilization in Otolaryngology: A Scoping Review

OBJECTIVE

Social media (SM) is an increasingly popular medium for the medical community to engage with patients, trainees, and colleagues. This review aimed to identify reported uses of SM in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery (OHNS), assess the quality of evidence supporting these uses, and identify gaps in the literature. With the relative lack of regulatory guidelines for the development of SM content, we hypothesized that the quality of content available on SM would be highly variable.

DATA SOURCES AND METHODS

A scoping review was performed of English-language peer-reviewed studies published to date discussing SM use in any form within OHNS. Three reviewers independently screened all abstracts. Two reviewers independently extracted data of interest from the full text of articles identified from the preliminary abstract screen.

RESULTS

171 studies were included, with 94 (54.9%) studies published between 2020 and 2022. 104 (60.8%) studies were conducted in the US. 135 (78.9%) used cross-sectional or survey-based methodology; only 7 (4.1%) were controlled studies. SM was most commonly employed for professional networking (n = 37 [21%]), and within subspecialties of otology (n = 38 [22%]) and rhinology/allergy (n = 25 [15%]). Facebook was most frequently used for study recruitment (n = 23 [13.5%]), YouTube for patient education (n = 15 [14.6%]), and Twitter for professional networking (n = 16 [9.4%]).

CONCLUSION

SM use within OHNS is increasing rapidly, with applications including patient education, professional networking, and study recruitment. Despite myriad articles, there remains a paucity of well-controlled studies. As SM becomes integrated into healthcare, particularly for applications directly impacting patient care, higher levels of evidence are needed to understand its true impact. Laryngoscope, 133:2447-2456, 2023.

Evaluation of orthodontic retention and retainer content on the Reddit social media website

BACKGROUND

Social media can provide insight into patient experiences with health care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the content regarding orthodontic retention and retainers on the social media website, Reddit.

METHODS

A systematic search for relevant content submitted over a 12-month period on the Reddit forum, r/braces, was conducted. Qualitative analysis of the initial posts for themes and subthemes was conducted by two investigators. Responding comments to the initial posts were assessed for supportiveness for each initial poster and alignment with the evidence-base. Quantitative assessment was via descriptive statistics.

RESULTS

A total of 271 initial posts and 984 comments satisfied the inclusion/exclusion criteria. All initial posts were by patients. Just 1.12% (n = 11) of the comments appeared to be provided by oral health professionals. Most initial posts were negative (50.18%; n = 136), and most comments were positive (70.42%; n = 693). Alignment with the evidence-base was high among the comments (67.89%; n = 668). Eight main themes were identified with concerns regarding the negative impact of retention and retainers on quality of life, compliance with retention protocols and relapse commonly expressed. Concern regarding fear of relapse when waiting for the initial or renewal of retainers was a novel finding. More negative sentiments about orthodontists were expressed than positive.

CONCLUSIONS

Reddit is a supportive and reliable environment for patients regarding orthodontic retention and retainers. The content evaluation suggested deficiencies in communication processes between clinicians and patients. Greater engagement of the orthodontic profession in the provision of supportive and evidence-based information on an individual patient basis and through appropriate information channels is required.

Exploring patient experiences and concerns in the online Cochlear implant community: A cross-sectional study and validation of automated topic modelling

OBJECTIVE

There is a paucity of research examining patient experiences of cochlear implants. We sought to use natural language processing methods to explore patient experiences and concerns in the online cochlear implant (CI) community.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Cross-sectional study of posts on the online Reddit r/CochlearImplants forum from 1 March 2015 to 11 November 2021. Natural language processing using the BERTopic automated topic modelling technique was employed to cluster posts into semantically similar topics. Topic categorisation was manually validated by two independent reviewers and Cohen's kappa calculated to determine inter-rater reliability between machine vs human and human vs human categorisation.

RESULTS

We retrieved 987 posts from 588 unique Reddit users on the r/CochlearImplants forum. Posts were initially categorised by BERTopic into 16 different Topics, which were increased to 23 Topics following manual inspection. The most popular topics related to CI connectivity (n = 112), adults considering getting a CI (n = 107), surgery-related posts (n = 89) and day-to-day living with a CI (n = 85). Cohen's kappa among all posts was 0.62 (machine vs. human) and 0.72 (human vs. human), and among categorised posts was 0.85 (machine vs. human) and 0.84 (human vs. human).

CONCLUSIONS

This cross-sectional study of social media discussions among the online cochlear implant community identified common attitudes, experiences and concerns of patients living with, or seeking, a cochlear implant. Our validation of natural language processing methods to categorise topics shows that automated analysis of similar Otolaryngology-related content is a viable and accurate alternative to manual qualitative approaches.

Social Media Use in Hearing Loss, Tinnitus, and Vestibular Disorders: A Systematic Review

Background:

People are increasingly using social media outlets for gathering health-related information. There has also been considerable interest from researchers and clinicians in understanding how social media is used by the general public, patients, and health professionals to gather health-related information. Interest in the use of social media for audiovestibular disorders has also received attention, although published evidence synthesis of this use is lacking. The objective of this review article was to synthesize existing research studies related to social media use concerning hearing loss, tinnitus, and vestibular disorders.

Method:

Comprehensive searches were performed in multiple databases between October and November 2020 and again in June 2021 and March 2022, with additional reports identified from article citations and unpublished literature. This review article was presented using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

Results:

A total of 1,512 articles were identified. Of these, 16 publications met the inclusion criteria. Overall, social media offered people the platform to learn about hearing loss, tinnitus, and vestibular disorders via advice and support seeking, personal experience sharing, general information sharing, and relationship building. Research studies were more common on information and user activities seen on Facebook Pages, Twitter, and YouTube videos. Misinformation was identified across all social media platforms for each of these conditions.

Conclusions:

Online discussions about audiovestibular disorders are evident, although inconsistencies in study procedures make it difficult to compare these discussion groups. Misinformation is a concern needing to be addressed during clinical consultations as well as via other public health means. Uniform guidelines are needed for research regarding the use of social media so that outcomes are comparable. Moreover, clinical studies examining how exposure to and engagement with social media information may impact outcomes (e.g., help seeking, rehabilitation uptake, rehabilitation use, and satisfaction) require exploration.

Supplemental Material:

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.20667672