IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i3p1933-d1042241.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysis of Caregiver Burden Expressed in Social Media Discussions

Author

Listed:
  • Catherine C. Shoults

    (Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA)

  • Michael W. Rutherford

    (Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA)

  • Aaron S. Kemp

    (Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA
    Department of Psychiatry, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA)

  • Merideth A. Addicott

    (Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA)

  • Aliza Brown

    (Department of Neurology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA)

  • Carolyn J. Greene

    (Department of Psychiatry, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA)

  • Corey J. Hayes

    (Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA
    Department of Psychiatry, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA
    VA HSR&D COIN Center for Mental Healthcare and Outcomes Research, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA)

  • Jennifer M. Gan

    (Department of Medical Humanities and Bioethics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA)

  • Linda J. Larson-Prior

    (Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA
    Department of Psychiatry, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA
    Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA)

  • Jonathan P. Bona

    (Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA)

Abstract

Almost 40% of US adults provide informal caregiving, yet research gaps remain around what burdens affect informal caregivers. This study uses a novel social media site, Reddit, to mine and better understand what online communities focus on as their caregiving burdens. These forums were accessed using an application programming interface, a machine learning classifier was developed to remove low information posts, and topic modeling was applied to the corpus. An expert panel summarized the forums’ themes into ten categories. The largest theme extracted from Reddit’s forums discussed the personal emotional toll of being a caregiver. This was followed by logistic issues while caregiving and caring for parents who have cancer. Smaller themes included approaches to end-of-life care, physical equipment needs when caregiving, and the use of wearables or technology to help monitor care recipients. The platform often discusses caregiving for parents which may reflect the age of Reddit’s users. This study confirms that Reddit forums are used for caregivers to discuss the burdens associated with their role and the types of stress that can result from informal caregiving.

Suggested Citation

  • Catherine C. Shoults & Michael W. Rutherford & Aaron S. Kemp & Merideth A. Addicott & Aliza Brown & Carolyn J. Greene & Corey J. Hayes & Jennifer M. Gan & Linda J. Larson-Prior & Jonathan P. Bona, 2023. "Analysis of Caregiver Burden Expressed in Social Media Discussions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-11, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:3:p:1933-:d:1042241
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/1933/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/1933/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anderson, L.A. & Goodman, R.A. & Holtzman, D. & Posner, S.F. & Northridge, M.E., 2012. "Aging in the United States: Opportunities and challenges for public health," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(3), pages 393-395.
    2. Deborah Jacks Camak, 2015. "Addressing the burden of stroke caregivers: a literature review," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(17-18), pages 2376-2382, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dinja J van der Veen & Carola M E Döpp & Petra C Siemonsma & Maria W G Nijhuis-van der Sanden & Bert J M de Swart & Esther M Steultjens, 2019. "Factors influencing the implementation of Home-Based Stroke Rehabilitation: Professionals’ perspective," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(7), pages 1-16, July.
    2. Wolfe, Marcus T. & Patel, Pankaj C., 2022. "What's my age again? The association between self-employment and klotho protein," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    3. Chow, Esther O.W. & Wong, Yuk Yi & Fok, Doris Y.H. & Liao, Xu & Li, Chaoyu, 2021. "Positive life stories of Stroke-Survivor's spousal caregiving in Hong Kong: Lessons for policy and practice," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    4. Debasree Das Gupta & David W. S. Wong, 2021. "How “Dependent” Are We? A Spatiotemporal Analysis of the Young and the Older Adult Populations in the US," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(6), pages 1221-1252, December.
    5. Catherine Hudson & Kate Radford & Jade Kettlewell, 2022. "A Qualitative Study to Understand the Impact of Caring for Traumatic Injury Survivors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-17, December.
    6. Ashley Kable & Amanda Baker & Dimity Pond & Erica Southgate & Alyna Turner & Christopher Levi, 2019. "Health professionals’ perspectives on the discharge process and continuity of care for stroke survivors discharged home in regional Australia: A qualitative, descriptive study," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 253-261, June.
    7. Eun‐Young Kim & Hyun‐E Yeom, 2016. "Influence of home care services on caregivers' burden and satisfaction," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(11-12), pages 1683-1692, June.
    8. Sunna Rannikko & Minna Stolt & Riitta Suhonen & Helena Leino‐Kilpi, 2019. "Ethical issues in the care of patients with stroke: A scoping review," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1-2), pages 20-31, January.
    9. Soheila Shamsikhani & Fazlollah Ahmadi & Anoshirvan Kazemnejad & Mojtaba Vaismoradi, 2021. "Typology of Family Support in Home Care for Iranian Older People: A Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-14, June.
    10. Ben Lennox Kail, 2016. "The Mental and Physical Health Consequences of Changes in Private Insurance Before and After Early Retirement," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 71(2), pages 358-368.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:3:p:1933-:d:1042241. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.