Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease on Twitter: a sentiment analysis

Sentiment analysis is a technique for exploring a piece of text with the aim to investigate sentiments hidden within it. The use of sentiment analysis in health care could assist in understanding how individuals discuss and feel about a specific topic. Currently, there are scarce data regarding the use of sentiment analysis related to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is the most common chronic liver disease worldwide and is associated with hepatic and extra-hepatic complications. Hence, the aim of this report was to assess the sentiments of NAFLD expressed in messages posted on Twitter, one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide. We chose the hashtags #FattyLiver, #NAFLD, #NASH, and #MAFLD as terms to identify the messages related to NAFLD on Twitter. Messages containing at least one of these hashtags were collected using the standard Application Programming Interface provided by Twitter. The sentiment analysis revealed that sentiments hidden within messages related to NAFLD were substantially neutral and that "breastcancer" and "cancer" were two of the most common words used, suggesting that a large part of messages focused on the relationship between NAFLD and extra-hepatic cancers. Conversely, the association between NAFLD and cardiovascular disease seems to be less relevant for Twitter community. These observations might be useful for developing better public health strategies and for promoting a constructive attitude among subjects that read and discuss about NAFLD (and its complications) on social media.