JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Frequently, individuals are turning to social media to discuss medical conditions and medication, sharing their experiences and information and asking questions among themselves. These online discussions can provide valuable insights into individuals’ perceptions of medical treatment, and increasingly, studies are focusing on the potential use of this information to improve healthcare management.

Objective:

The objective of this infodemiology study was to identify social media posts mentioning paracetamol-containing products, to develop a better understanding of the patients’ opinions and perceptions of the drug.

Methods:

Posts containing at least one mention of paracetamol were extracted from 18 French forums between January 2003 and March 2019 with the use of the Detec’t webcrawler. Posts were then analyzed using the automated Detec’t tool which uses machine-learning and text-mining methods to inspect social media posts and extract relevant content.

Results:

Overall, 44,283 posts were analyzed from 20,883 different users. Post volume over the study period showed a peak in activity between 2009 and 2012, as well as a spike in 2017 in the General group. The number of posts tended to be higher during winter each year. Posts were made predominantly by women (71%), with 12% made by men and 17% by individuals of unknown gender. The mean age of web users was 39 (±19) years. In the General group, pain was the most common medical concept discussed (22,257 posts, 50%) and paracetamol risk was the most common discussion topic, addressed in 8,902 posts (20.36%). Doliprane® was the most common medication mentioned (14,058 posts, 32%) within the General group, and tramadol was the most commonly mentioned drug in combination with paracetamol in the General group (1,038 posts, 5%). The most common unapproved indication mentioned within the Paracetamol Only group was fatigue (190 posts, with 16% positive for an unapproved indication), with reference to dependence made by 0.79% of the web users, accounting for 1.33% of the posts in the Paracetamol Only group. Dependence mentions in the Paracetamol and Opioids group were provided by 3.64% of web users, accounting for 5.44% of total posts. Reference to overdose was made by 245 web users across 291 posts within the Paracetamol Only group. The most common potential adverse event (PAE) detected was nausea (2.38% of posts) within the Paracetamol Only group

Conclusions:

The use of social media mining with the Detec’t tool provided valuable information on the perceptions and understanding of the web users, highlighting areas where providing more information for the general public on paracetamol, as well as other medications, may be of benefit.