Sexual and gender-diverse individuals face more health challenges during COVID-19: Insights from a large-scale social media analysis
2024-10-21
(Press-News.org)
A new study by researchers at Zhejiang University has highlighted the disproportionate health challenges faced by sexual and gender-diverse (SGD) individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic. By analyzing over 471 million tweets using advanced natural language processing (NLP) techniques, the study reveals that SGD individuals were more likely to discuss concerns related to social connections, mask-wearing, and experienced higher rates of COVID-19 symptoms and mental health issues than non-SGD individuals. The study has been published in the journal Health Data Science.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and intensified health disparities, particularly for vulnerable populations like the sexual and gender-diverse (SGD) community. Unlike traditional health data sources, social media provides a more dynamic and real-time reflection of public concerns and experiences. Zhiyun Zhang, a Ph.D. student at Zhejiang University, and Jie Yang, Assistant Professor at the same institution, led a study that analyzed large-scale Twitter data to understand the unique challenges faced by SGD individuals during the pandemic.
To address this, the research team used NLP methods such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) models for topic modeling and advanced sentiment analysis to evaluate the discussions and concerns of SGD Twitter users compared to non-SGD users. This approach allowed the researchers to explore three primary questions: the predominant topics discussed by SGD users, their concerns about COVID-19 precautions, and the severity of their symptoms and mental health challenges.
The findings reveal significant differences between the two groups. SGD users were more frequently involved in discussions about "friends and family" (20.5% vs. 13.1%) and "wearing masks" (10.1% vs. 8.3%). They also expressed higher levels of positive sentiment toward vaccines such as Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson. The study found that SGD individuals reported significantly higher frequencies of both physical and mental health symptoms compared to non-SGD users, underscoring their heightened vulnerability during the pandemic.
"Our large-scale social media analysis highlights the concerns and health challenges of SGD users. The topic analysis showed that SGD users were more frequently involved in discussions about ‘friends and family’ and ‘wearing masks’ than non-SGD users. SGD users also expressed a higher level of positive sentiment in tweets about vaccines," said Zhiyun Zhang, the lead researcher. "These insights emphasize the importance of targeted public health interventions for SGD communities."
The study demonstrates the potential of using social media data to monitor and understand public health concerns, especially for marginalized communities like SGD individuals. The results suggest the need for more tailored public health strategies to address the unique challenges faced by SGD communities during pandemics.
Moving forward, the research team aims to develop an automated pipeline to continuously monitor the health of targeted populations, offering data-driven insights to support more comprehensive public health services.
END
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2024-10-21
A new study1 has unveiled the Hispanic Thrifty Food Plan (H-TFP), a culturally adapted and affordable diet specifically designed to align with the eating habits of U.S. Hispanic households. The research, led by Adam Drewnowski, PhD, from the University of Washington, used advanced dietary modeling to create a version of the USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) that respects the distinctive food patterns of Hispanic communities.
The USDA's Thrifty Food Plan is the foundation for setting benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), but it has not traditionally accounted for the ...
2024-10-21
An innovative study, to be published in Nature Communications on October 21, 2024, reveals the mechanism behind two seemingly contradictory effects of fear memories: the inability to forget yet the difficulty to recall. Led by researchers from Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc., ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, and the University of Tokyo, the study shows how fear experiences are initially remembered as broad, associative memories, but over time become integrated into episodic memories with a more specific timeline.
The researchers conducted experiments using functional ...
2024-10-21
Guideline Highlights:
Each year in the U.S., over half a million people have a first stroke; however, up to 80% of strokes may be preventable.
The new primary prevention of stroke guideline from the American Stroke Association urges health care professionals to screen people for stroke risk factors, including high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, high blood sugar and obesity.
Increasing public awareness and knowledge about healthy lifestyle changes, such as smoking cessation, increased physical activity, improved dietary habits and better sleep, may also help people reduce their stroke risk.
The new guideline highlights the American Heart ...
2024-10-21
It is one of the most fundamental questions in science: how can lifeless molecules come together to form a living cell? Bert Poolman, Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Groningen, has been working on this problem for over twenty years. He aims to understand life by trying to reconstruct it; he is building simplified artificial versions of biological systems that can be used as components for a synthetic cell. Poolman recently published two papers in Nature Nanotechnology and Nature Communications. In the first paper, he describes a system for energy conversion ...
2024-10-21
In one of the largest-ever studies of DNA and brain volume, researchers have identified 254 genetic variants that shape key structures in the “deep brain,” including those that control memory, motor skills, addictive behaviors and more. The findings were just published in the journal Nature Genetics.
The study is powered by the Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) consortium, an international effort based at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, which unites more than 1,000 research labs across 45 countries to hunt for genetic variations that affect the brain’s structure and function.
“A lot of brain diseases are known to be partially ...
2024-10-21
Food production is one of the pillars of human civilization and underlies many of the changes caused by humans on planet’s landscapes. Producing food and getting it to people’s plates entails a significant expenditure of energy and resources. Unfortunately, approximately one third of all food produced globally is not consumed and discarded. Hence, to build sustainable societies, it is essential to minimize food waste.
In Japan, based on estimates reported by governmental institutions, an astonishing 2.47 megatons of food waste was generated in ...
2024-10-21
Many women who receive chemotherapy experience a decreased ability to remember, concentrate, and/or think—commonly referred to as “chemo-brain” or “brain fog”—both short- and long-term. In a recent clinical trial of women initiating chemotherapy for breast cancer, those who simultaneously started an aerobic exercise program self-reported greater improvements in cognitive function and quality of life compared with those receiving standard care. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
The study, called the Aerobic exercise and ...
2024-10-21
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Protein bars, shakes and powders are increasingly popular among adults – but many teens may be jumping on the bandwagon too.
Two in five parents say their teen consumed protein supplements in the past year, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health. The trend was more common among teen boys who were also more likely to take protein supplements every day or most days, parents reported.
“Protein is part of a healthy diet but it can be hard for parents to tell if ...
2024-10-21
SAN DIEGO, California, 21 October 2024. In an illuminating Genomic Press Interview published today, Dr. Stephanie Knatz Peck, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), unveils her groundbreaking work in eating disorder treatment and psychedelic research. The interview, featured in the journal Psychedelics, offers an intimate look at Dr. Knatz Peck's journey from personal struggle with an eating disorder to becoming a leading innovator in the field.
Dr. Knatz Peck's research ...
2024-10-21
In stalk-eyed flies, longer eyestalks attract the ladies. Females prefer males with longer eyestalks, and other males are less likely to fight them for access to females. But some males have a copy of the X chromosome which always causes short eyestalks. Scientists investigating why this mutation hasn’t died out, despite sexual selection, have discovered that the flies could be compensating for their shorter eyestalks with increased aggression.
“It's the first time I'm aware of that there's ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Sexual and gender-diverse individuals face more health challenges during COVID-19: Insights from a large-scale social media analysis
