Twitter sentiment predicts Affordable Care Act marketplace enrollment.
J Med Internet Res
; 17(2): e51, 2015 Feb 23.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-25707038
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Traditional metrics of the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and health insurance marketplaces in the United States include public opinion polls and marketplace enrollment, which are published with a lag of weeks to months. In this rapidly changing environment, a real-time barometer of public opinion with a mechanism to identify emerging issues would be valuable.OBJECTIVE:
We sought to evaluate Twitter's role as a real-time barometer of public sentiment on the ACA and to determine if Twitter sentiment (the positivity or negativity of tweets) could be predictive of state-level marketplace enrollment.METHODS:
We retrospectively collected 977,303 ACA-related tweets in March 2014 and then tested a correlation of Twitter sentiment with marketplace enrollment by state.RESULTS:
A 0.10 increase in the sentiment score was associated with an 8.7% increase in enrollment at the state level (95% CI 1.32-16.13; P=.02), a correlation that remained significant when adjusting for state Medicaid expansion (P=.02) or use of a state-based marketplace (P=.03).CONCLUSIONS:
This correlation indicates Twitter's potential as a real-time monitoring strategy for future marketplace enrollment periods; marketplaces could systematically track Twitter sentiment to more rapidly identify enrollment changes and potentially emerging issues. As a repository of free and accessible consumer-generated opinions, this study reveals a novel role for Twitter in the health policy landscape.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Temas:
ECOS
/
Aspectos_gerais
Bases de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Internet
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Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
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Mídias Sociais
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
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Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Med Internet Res
Assunto da revista:
INFORMATICA MEDICA
Ano de publicação:
2015
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos