Public Response to Obamacare on Twitter.
Public Response to Obamacare on Twitter.
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DOI：
10.2196/jmir.6946
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发表时间：
2017-05-26
影响因子：
7.4
通讯作者：
Levy H
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Davis MA;Zheng K;Liu Y;Levy H
被称为“奥巴马医改”的平价医疗法案（ACA）是2010年制定后逐步实施的备受争议的法律。民意调查一直显示，公众对ACA的看法相当负面。我们研究的目的是检验Twitter数据在多大程度上可以用来衡量公众对ACA的看法。从2011年7月10日至2015年7月31日，我们使用Twitter的流媒体应用程序编程接口（API）前瞻性地收集了每日tweet的10%随机样本（自2011年7月以来约5200万条）。使用关键术语列表和ACA特定的标签，我们确定了关于ACA的推文，并检查了与ACA关键事件相关的ACA推文总量。我们应用标准文本情感分析为每条ACA tweet分配积极或消极的度量，并将Twitter的总体情绪与凯撒家庭基金会健康跟踪调查的结果进行比较。Twitter上的公众舆论（通过情绪分析得出）比凯撒民意调查得出的公众舆论略微有利（分别约为50%和40%），但随着时间的推移，两种来源的有利和不利观点的趋势相似。基于twitter的民意调查和凯撒民意调查随着时间的推移变化很小：有利和不利的公众舆论的相关系数是。43和。分别为37。然而，我们发现，与aca相关的推文数量在回应法律实施中的关键事件时出现了大幅飙升，比如2013年10月的第一次开放注册期和2012年6月的最高法院判决。Twitter可能有助于追踪公众对医疗改革的看法，因为它似乎与传统的民意调查结果相当。此外，与传统的民意调查相比，tweet的总量还提供了在任何时间点对特定问题的公众兴趣的潜在指示。
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), often called “Obamacare,” is a controversial law that has been implemented gradually since its enactment in 2010. Polls have consistently shown that public opinion of the ACA is quite negative. The aim of our study was to examine the extent to which Twitter data can be used to measure public opinion of the ACA over time. We prospectively collected a 10% random sample of daily tweets (approximately 52 million since July 2011) using Twitter’s streaming application programming interface (API) from July 10, 2011 to July 31, 2015. Using a list of key terms and ACA-specific hashtags, we identified tweets about the ACA and examined the overall volume of tweets about the ACA in relation to key ACA events. We applied standard text sentiment analysis to assign each ACA tweet a measure of positivity or negativity and compared overall sentiment from Twitter with results from the Kaiser Family Foundation health tracking poll. Public opinion on Twitter (measured via sentiment analysis) was slightly more favorable than public opinion measured by the Kaiser poll (approximately 50% vs 40%, respectively) but trends over time in both favorable and unfavorable views were similar in both sources. The Twitter-based measures of opinion as well as the Kaiser poll changed very little over time: correlation coefficients for favorable and unfavorable public opinion were .43 and .37, respectively. However, we found substantial spikes in the volume of ACA-related tweets in response to key events in the law’s implementation, such as the first open enrollment period in October 2013 and the Supreme Court decision in June 2012. Twitter may be useful for tracking public opinion of health care reform as it appears to be comparable with conventional polling results. Moreover, in contrast with conventional polling, the overall amount of tweets also provides a potential indication of public interest of a particular issue at any point in time.