Abstract
Introduction: In March 2020, we organized two tweet chats to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on people affected by chronic pain. The objective of this study is to evaluate the #CovidPain tweet chat activities that took place at the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: We performed a quantitative analysis of the magnitude, range, engagement, and sentiment of each tweet chat. The data was extracted from Twitter and analyzed in Twitter Analytics and Symplur Signals using frequency and distributions. Then, we conducted a qualitative content analysis of the narrative tweets generated in response to the questions posted during the tweet chats.Results: The two tweet chats attracted 2305 participants, which generated 4351 tweets. The participants were healthcare providers, patient advocates, researchers/academics, and caregivers. COVID-19 had both negative and positive impacts. The negative consequences of COVID-19 included the reduction of physical activity, canceled appointments and treatments, more isolation, deterioration of preexisting mental health problems, and economic consequences. The positive consequences included efficient use of telemedicine, innovative methods for self-management, and at-home interventions.Conclusion: Twitter and tweet chats are useful in involving a diverse group of stakeholders for taking a deep dive into the topical issues relevant to a community that might be disproportionately affected by a public health crisis.
Highlights
In March 2020, we organized two tweet chats to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on people affected by chronic pain
The tweet chats were advertised on Twitter for Canadians living with chronic pain, healthcare providers, researchers, and anyone interested in the topic
It is important to note that the number of participants was much smaller in the second tweet chat than in the first tweet chat, the level of participation was comparable among the questions themselves
Summary
In March 2020, we organized two tweet chats to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on people affected by chronic pain. The COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to affect people with chronic pain for various reasons, including concerns regarding the condition itself, the shutdown of services provided in communities, the disruption of medication supply chains, burdening the healthcare system, the financial impact to society, social isolation, and the possible risk of illness or death. Tweet chats are real-time discussions among Twitter users where a moderator posts questions during a preestablished duration of time and people respond to tweets using a unique hashtag. They provide an opportunity to quickly access the opinions of large groups of people around the world, an appropriate method of outreach given the social distancing and travel restrictions in place due to COVID-19.
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