TY  - JOUR
AU  - Park, So Hyun
AU  - Hong, Song Hee
PY  - 2018
DA  - 2018/10/24
TI  - Identification of Primary Medication Concerns Regarding Thyroid Hormone Replacement Therapy From Online Patient Medication Reviews: Text Mining of Social Network Data
JO  - J Med Internet Res
SP  - e11085
VL  - 20
IS  - 10
KW  - medication counseling
KW  - social network data
KW  - primary medication concerns
KW  - satisfaction with levothyroxine treatment
AB  - Background: Patients with hypothyroidism report poor health-related quality of life despite having undergone thyroid hormone replacement therapy (THRT). Understanding patient concerns regarding levothyroxine can help improve the treatment outcomes of THRT. Objective: This study aimed to (1) identify the distinctive themes in patient concerns regarding THRT, (2) determine whether patients have unique primary medication concerns specific to their demographics, and (3) determine the predictability of primary medication concerns on patient treatment satisfaction. Methods: We collected patient reviews from WebMD in the United States (1037 reviews about generic levothyroxine and 1075 reviews about the brand version) posted between September 1, 2007, and January 30, 2017. We used natural language processing to identify the themes of medication concerns. Multiple regression analyses were conducted in order to examine the predictability of the primary medication concerns on patient treatment satisfaction. Results: Natural language processing of the patient reviews of levothyroxine posted on a social networking site produced 6 distinctive themes of patient medication concerns related to levothyroxine treatment: how to take the drug, treatment initiation, dose adjustment, symptoms of pain, generic substitutability, and appearance. Patients had different primary medication concerns unique to their gender, age, and treatment duration. Furthermore, treatment satisfaction on levothyroxine depended on what primary medication concerns the patient had. Conclusions: Natural language processing of text content available on social media could identify different themes of patient medication concerns that can be validated in future studies to inform the design of tailored medication counseling for improved patient treatment satisfaction. 
SN  - 1438-8871
UR  - http://www.jmir.org/2018/10/e11085/
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/11085
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30355555
DO  - 10.2196/11085
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/11085
ER  -