Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jun 16, 2023
Date Accepted: May 22, 2024
Using topic modelling to understand patients’ and caregivers’ perspectives about left ventricular assist device: A thematic analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Heart failure (HF) is a significant global clinical and public health challenge, impacting 64.3 million individuals worldwide. To address the scarcity of donor organs, left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation has become a crucial intervention for managing end-stage HF, serving as a bridge to heart transplantation or as destination therapy. Online health forums, such as MyLVAD.com, play a vital role as trusted sources of information for individuals with HF symptoms and their caregivers.
Objective:
The main objective of this study was to uncover the latent topics within the posts shared by users on the MyLVAD.com website.
Methods:
Employing the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) algorithm and a visualization tool, our objective was to uncover latent topics within the posts shared on the MyLVAD.com website. Through the application of topic modeling techniques, we analyzed 459 posts authored by LVAD recipients and their family members from 2015 to 2023.
Results:
The study unveiled five prominent themes of concern among LVAD patients and their family members. These themes include family support (39.5% weight value), encompassing subthemes like family caregiving roles and emotional/ practical support; clothing (23.9% weight value), with subthemes related to comfort, normalcy, and functionality; infection (18.2% weight value), covering driveline infections, prevention, and care; power (12.0% weight value), involving challenges associated with power dependency; and self-care maintenance, monitoring, and management (6.3% weight value), which includes subthemes like blood tests, monitoring, alarms, and device management.
Conclusions:
These findings contribute to a better understanding of the experiences and needs of patients implanted with LVAD, providing valuable insights for healthcare professionals to offer tailored support and care. By utilizing LDA to analyze posts from the MyLVAD.com forum, this study sheds light on key topics discussed by users, facilitating improved patient care and enhanced patient-provider communication.
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