Analyzing health tweets of LGB and transgender individuals

There are millions of LGB and transgender individuals in the world. However, conducting LGBT health-related studies are labor-intensive and time-consuming because of the challenges inherent in studying these hidden populations. Social media sites like Twitter provide a platform for LGBT users to share their health concerns, giving researchers the opportunity to collect and analyze these social comments. This research used a mixed method to examine the linguistic and semantic characteristics of health-related tweets shared by self-identified LGBT individuals. Findings uncovered several health-related topics shared by LGBT users. Further, while LGB and transgender communities are within the LGBT umbrella, we found a significant linguistic difference between the tweets shared by LGB and transgender individuals. These findings show further disparities within an already marginalized group, indicating the need for customized healthcare to improve the health of all people. Our research approach can also inform studies in the areas of informatics, health, and medicine for analyzing the health concerns of not only sexual and gender minorities but also other hidden populations. © 2020, John Wiley and Sons Inc. All rights reserved.