In:
PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science (PLoS), Vol. 17, No. 4 ( 2022-4-7), p. e0266299-
Abstract:
Trends in the public perception and awareness of COVID-19 over time are poorly understood. We conducted a longitudinal study to analyze characteristics and trends of online information during a major COVID-19 outbreak in Da Nang province, Vietnam in July-August 2020 to understand public awareness and perceptions during an epidemic. Methods We collected online information on COVID-19 incidence and mortality from online platforms in Vietnam between 1 July and 15 September, 2020, and assessed their trends over time against the epidemic curve. We explored the associations between engagement, sentiment polarity, and other characteristics of online information with different outbreak phases using Poisson regression and multinomial logistic regression analysis. We assessed the frequency of keywords over time, and conducted a semantic analysis of keywords using word segmentation. Results We found a close association between collected online information and the evolution of the COVID-19 situation in Vietnam. Online information generated higher engagements during compared to before the outbreak. There was a close relationship between sentiment polarity and posts’ topics: the emotional tendencies about COVID-19 mortality were significantly more negative, and more neutral or positive about COVID-19 incidence. Online newspaper reported significantly more information in negative or positive sentiment than online forums or social media. Most topics of public concern followed closely the progression of the COVID-19 situation during the outbreak: development of the global pandemic and vaccination; the unfolding outbreak in Vietnam; and the subsiding of the outbreak after two months. Conclusion This study shows how online information can reflect a public health threat in real time, and provides important insights about public awareness and perception during different outbreak phases. Our findings can help public health decision makers in Vietnam and other low and middle income countries with high internet penetration rates to design more effective communication strategies during critical phases of an epidemic.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1932-6203
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.g001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.g002
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.g003
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.g004
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.g005
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.t001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.t002
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.t003
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.t004
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.t005
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.s001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.s002
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.s003
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.s004
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.s005
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.s006
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0266299.s007
Language:
English
Publisher:
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Publication Date:
2022
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2267670-3
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