State Legislators' Divergent Social Media Response to the Opioid Epidemic from 2014 to 2019: Longitudinal Topic Modeling Analysis.
natural language processing
opioid policy
social media
state legislators
Journal
Journal of general internal medicine
ISSN: 1525-1497
Titre abrégé: J Gen Intern Med
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 8605834
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
11 2021
11 2021
Historique:
received:
05
09
2020
accepted:
21
02
2021
pubmed:
31
3
2021
medline:
15
12
2021
entrez:
30
3
2021
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
The opioid epidemic is widely recognized as a legislative priority, but there is substantial variation in state adoption of evidence-based policy. State legislators' use of social media to disseminate information and to indicate support for specific initiatives continues to grow and may reflect legislators' openness to opioid-related policy change. We sought to identify changes in the national dialogue regarding the opioid epidemic among Democratic and Republican state legislators and to estimate changing partisanship around understanding and addressing the epidemic over time. Longitudinal natural language processing analysis. A total of 4083 US state legislators in office between 2014 and 2019 with any opioid-related social media posts. Association between opioid-related post volume and state overdose mortality, as measured by Kendall's rank correlation coefficient. Latent Dirichlet allocation analysis of all social media posts to identify key opioid-related topics. Longitudinal analysis of differences in the prevalence of key topics among Democrats and Republicans over time. In total, 43,558 social media posts met inclusion criteria, with the vast majority to Twitter (n=28,564; 65.6%) or Facebook (n=14,283; 32.8%). Posts were more likely to mention fentanyl and less likely to mention heroin over time. The volume of opioid-related content was positively associated with state-level unintentional overdose mortality among both Democrats (tau=0.42, P<.001) and Republicans (tau=0.39, P<.001). Democrats' social media content has increasingly spoken to holding pharmaceutical companies accountable, while Republicans' social media content has increasingly spoken to curbing illicit drug trade. Overall, partisanship across topics increased from 2016 to 2019. The volume of opioid-related social media posts by US state legislators between 2014 and 2019 is associated with state-level overdose mortality, but the content across parties is significantly different. Democrats' and Republicans' social media posts may reflect growing partisanship regarding how best to address the overdose epidemic.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
The opioid epidemic is widely recognized as a legislative priority, but there is substantial variation in state adoption of evidence-based policy. State legislators' use of social media to disseminate information and to indicate support for specific initiatives continues to grow and may reflect legislators' openness to opioid-related policy change.
OBJECTIVE
We sought to identify changes in the national dialogue regarding the opioid epidemic among Democratic and Republican state legislators and to estimate changing partisanship around understanding and addressing the epidemic over time.
DESIGN
Longitudinal natural language processing analysis.
PARTICIPANTS
A total of 4083 US state legislators in office between 2014 and 2019 with any opioid-related social media posts.
MAIN MEASURES
Association between opioid-related post volume and state overdose mortality, as measured by Kendall's rank correlation coefficient. Latent Dirichlet allocation analysis of all social media posts to identify key opioid-related topics. Longitudinal analysis of differences in the prevalence of key topics among Democrats and Republicans over time.
KEY RESULTS
In total, 43,558 social media posts met inclusion criteria, with the vast majority to Twitter (n=28,564; 65.6%) or Facebook (n=14,283; 32.8%). Posts were more likely to mention fentanyl and less likely to mention heroin over time. The volume of opioid-related content was positively associated with state-level unintentional overdose mortality among both Democrats (tau=0.42, P<.001) and Republicans (tau=0.39, P<.001). Democrats' social media content has increasingly spoken to holding pharmaceutical companies accountable, while Republicans' social media content has increasingly spoken to curbing illicit drug trade. Overall, partisanship across topics increased from 2016 to 2019.
CONCLUSION
The volume of opioid-related social media posts by US state legislators between 2014 and 2019 is associated with state-level overdose mortality, but the content across parties is significantly different. Democrats' and Republicans' social media posts may reflect growing partisanship regarding how best to address the overdose epidemic.
Identifiants
pubmed: 33782896
doi: 10.1007/s11606-021-06678-9
pii: 10.1007/s11606-021-06678-9
pmc: PMC8606510
doi:
Substances chimiques
Analgesics, Opioid
0
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
3373-3382Subventions
Organisme : NIDA NIH HHS
ID : P30 DA040500
Pays : United States
Informations de copyright
© 2021. Society of General Internal Medicine.
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