Abstract
Atopic dermatitis or eczema affects a substantial minority of children and adults. Patients may treat their symptoms through skin care regimes and/or diet restrictions and/or prescribed topical corticosteroids. The patient perspective is important because of the longterm self-administered treatment regime and the potential psychological effects on relationships from a visible disease. This paper assesses the potential of public social media data to give new insights into patient perspectives through a thematic analysis of a random sample of 400 tweets from 2019 matching the query, “my eczema”. Whilst the most common use of Twitter is to announce a flare-up, it is also used to express anger and discuss possible treatments. New themes not previously reported include the use of humor to discuss the condition and giving eczema agency: discussing it as if it had a will of its own. These may be defense strategies against the potential of eczema to strike at any time or the fear of negative reactions or blame from friends. This highlights importance of nurses and others helping patients to deal with the psychological effects of eczema.Citation
Thelwall, S. and Thelwall, M. (2020) Anthropomorphizing atopy: Tweeting about eczema, Journal of the Dermatology Nurses' Association, 12(2), pp. 74-77. doi: 10.1097/JDN.0000000000000524Publisher
Wolters Kluwer HealthJournal
Journal of the Dermatology Nurses' AssociationAdditional Links
https://journals.lww.com/jdnaonline/pages/default.aspxType
Journal articleLanguage
enDescription
This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Wolters Kluwer in Journal of the Dermatology Nurses' Association on 03/04/2020, available online: https://journals.lww.com/jdnaonline/Abstract/2020/03000/Anthropomorphizing_Atopy__Tweeting_About_Eczema.4.aspx The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.ISSN
1945-760Xae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1097/JDN.0000000000000524
Scopus Count
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/