Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Aging
Date Submitted: Dec 13, 2021
Date Accepted: Mar 14, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Mar 15, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Using Twitter to Examine Stigma Against People with Dementia During COVID-19: Infodemiology Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
During the pandemic, there has been significant social media attention focused on the increased COVID-19 risks and impacts for people with dementia and their care partners. However, these messages can perpetuate misconceptions, false information, and stigma.
Objective:
This study used Twitter data to understand stigma against people with dementia propagated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods:
We collected 1,743 stigma related tweets using the GetOldTweets application in Python from February 15 to September 7, 2020. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the tweets.
Results:
Based on our analysis, four main themes were identified: ageism and devaluing the lives of people with dementia; misinformation and false beliefs about dementia and COVID-19; dementia used as an insult for political ridicule; and challenging stigma against dementia. Social media has been used to spread stigma, but it can also be used to challenge negative beliefs, stereotypes, and false information.
Conclusions:
Dementia education and awareness campaigns are urgently needed on social media to address COVID-19 related stigma. When stigmatizing discourse on dementia is widely shared and consumed amongst the public, it has public health implications. How we talk about dementia shapes how policymakers, clinicians, and the public value the lives of people with dementia. Stigma perpetuates misinformation, pejorative language, and patronizing attitudes that can lead to discriminatory actions such as the limited provision of lifesaving supports and health services for people with dementia during the pandemic. COVID-19 policies and public health messages should focus on precautions and preventive measures rather than labeling specific population groups. Clinical Trial: N/A
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.