Cyberbullying in the official media can play a significant role in keeping death rates among people with asthma unnecessarily high, a “big data” study suggested.
Researchers at Nottingham University Business School’s N / LAB analysis center believe that abuse on online platforms fuels “a vicious cycle” that stigmatizes asthma and encourages those with the condition to trivialize or distance themselves from it.
This could make them less likely to follow their medication and make them more vulnerable to asthma attacks, according to the analysis of thousands of messages posted on Twitter.
The study aimed to explore perceptions of the disease among patients and the public, and uncovered a number of potentially harmful themes common to both groups, the authors said.
In addition to conducting in-depth interviews with asthma patients, N / LAB data specialists processed and analyzed thousands of tweets containing asthma-related keywords.
Study co-author Vanja Ljevar, a computer science psychologist, said: “It’s not particularly unusual to examine how patients feel about themselves, but it can only tell us half the story.
“Therefore, it is also essential to understand the perceptions that exist beyond patients’ control, as it provides the social context that is likely to influence how they think and act.
“We believe ours is the first study to compare patient and public perceptions and to identify the overlaps that may ultimately shape how people with asthma go about their lives.”
Interviews with asthma patients found that they tended to believe that they were widely regarded as “weak”, “outcast”, “wimpy”, “nerdy”, unable to cope with stress and suffering from a “disability” .
For example, some patients claim that this kind of stigma is the reason why they rarely disclose their condition and will not even discuss asthma with their friends and colleagues.
The Twitter analysis found considerable evidence of such perceptions, with comments including “Nice inhaler, nerd” and “There’s so much air – how can you get asthma?”
Dr James Goulding, co-director of N / LAB, said many of the tweets could be seen as examples of cyberbullying and were likely to cause “psychological and emotional stress”.
Dr Goulding said: “The aim of our research was to investigate what asthma patients accept that others think of them in light of their condition and to compare it with what others actually think.
“We suggest that there are clear similarities between patients ‘and the public’s views, not least with regard to stigmatization, and that this can significantly affect patients’ thinking.
“Some patients, for example, claim that this kind of stigma is the reason why they rarely disclose their condition and will not even discuss asthma with their friends and colleagues.
“In turn, this reluctance leaves the public less knowledgeable than it should be – creating a vicious cycle of lack of understanding that is likely to perpetuate negative outcomes.”
N / LAB, whose research aims to harness the power of big data for social good, collaborated with the University of Nottingham’s School of Psychology to conduct the study.
Dr Alexa Spence, an expert on social cognition at the School of Psychology, said: “Our findings suggest that stigmatization can lead to feelings of trivialization and marginalization among asthma patients.
“This in itself will probably lead to less adherence to medication, which is of course extremely undesirable when good adherence is of cardinal importance in reducing mortality rates.
“It emphasizes that asthma patients need to be seen as part of a wider social environment, including its digital component, when it comes to developing interventions.”
The study also recommends making better use of the strong online sense of community among people with asthma to create more positive perceptions and improve support.
Asthma reportedly affects more than 300 million people worldwide, including 12% of children aged six to seven, and around eight million people in the UK.
About 160,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with asthma each year – with a higher incidence of the condition in children than in adults.
A study of official figures published in 2019 showed that deaths related to asthma in England and Wales have increased by a third over the past decade.