Twitter As a Caregiver Resource (FR420-C)

Abstract

1.Identify and analyze tweet chats related to caregiving for chronically or seriously ill individuals.2.Appraise how tweetchats are being used by caregivers of chronically or seriously ill individuals. Twitter is an online social media platform where users can post and read short text-based messages. With more than 500 million users, Twitter has the capacity to spread information rapidly. Live tweet chats are regularly scheduled directed conversations, often led by a moderator, discussing a specific topic that take place using a specific Twitter hashtag. With Twitter's ability to disseminate information, it is important to investigate the applications and information available for users regarding caregiving for persons with chronic and serious illness. To examine the use of Twitter and tweetchats for caregivers of chronically or seriously ill individuals (CSII). Searched symplur hashtag project for caregiving related chats. Tweets from relevant tweetchats dealing with CSII were collected from the beginning of 2013 until the end of May 2013. Tweets in these chats were categorized as one of the following: question, answer/discussion, resource sharing, support, caregiver burden, or caregiver stress. Six related chats were identified (alzchat, agingchat, carechat, eldercarechat, treatdiarieschat, vnsnychat). Topics discussed included subjects such as practical aspects of caregiving, dealing with healthcare issues of patients, and financial issues. N= 6754 tweets were categorized. There were 5273(78.07%) tweets categorized as answer/discussion, 826(12.23%) tweets categorized as questions, 465(6.88%) tweets categorized as resource sharing, 83(1.23%) tweets categorized as support, 79(1.17%) tweets categorized as caregiver stress, and 28(0.41%) tweets categorized as caregiver burden. Out of 30634 total tweets in that time frame, 23880 (78.0%) tweets were identified as non-related tweets, including, but not limited to, greetings, thank yous, and retweets. The individual chats had an average of 260.5 (ƒ=158.6) participants over the 5-month time period. Paired t-tests showed that only the answer/discussion category was significantly higher (P<.05) than any other individual category. The fewest tweets were under the category “caregiver burden”. This study shows the importance and ability of Twitter and tweet chats to organize and facilitate communication regarding caregiving for CSII. A large majority of these tweets are used to answer questions and discuss topics related to the specific healthcare keyword. Lower rates of “caregiver burden” might suggest that participants may not yet find it comfortable to share personal events through social media. Still, Twitter is great resource for information exchange and advice to and from healthcare professionals, and could be further expanded to provide caregiver support and share stories.