Researchers Use Reddit and AI to Uncover Health Care Barriers
The complexities of the US health care system can be daunting for many people. Understanding terms like health insurance, in-network providers, and deductibles can feel overwhelming. To get help, some individuals are turning to online forums and websites where they can hear firsthand from others about their experiences with the health care system.
A PhD student at the University of Albany’s School of Social Welfare is analyzing these online posts to better understand the barriers people face within the health care system. Arissa Spitalny’s work uses Reddit, a popular discussion website that hosts communities called subreddits where users can post about specific topics and reply to others’ posts.
Spitalny notes that individuals who may not feel comfortable sharing their concerns in traditional person-to-person interactions have a space on Reddit to anonymously voice their worries, ask for advice, or simply vent. This anonymity allows them to connect with others who share similar experiences without fear of judgment.
The subreddit ‘AskDocs’ is being examined by Spitalny, which has over half a million weekly visitors and was created in 2013. With over one million posts from this community, Spitalny is focusing on those that specifically mention health insurance.
Spitalny’s mentor, Assistant Professor Cheng Ren, specializes in using advanced artificial intelligence techniques and open-access data. Under his guidance, Spitalny developed an AI prompt to review the Reddit posts and classify approximately 15,000 of them that mentioned health insurance. The AI was trained on a dataset of 300 manually reviewed sample posts by Spitalny.
The use of AI significantly streamlined the analysis process for Spitalny, allowing her to efficiently examine the full dataset. She is now in the analysis and writing stage of her study, which will interpret patterns in the data collected from Reddit, including factors such as race, gender, and demographic location.
Spitalny’s research aims to contribute to a better understanding of health care access barriers and the role social work can play in improving care navigation. She hopes that by examining the support individuals seek online, she can gain insight into the lived experiences behind these patterns.
In the future, Spitalny plans to expand her study beyond insurance posts to examine other health care barriers as well.