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Analyzing Iranian opinions toward COVID-19 vaccination

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess Iranian tweets in order to: (1) analyze Iranian views toward COVID-19-vaccination; (2) compare Iranian views toward homegrown and imported COVID-19-vaccines; (3) present an effective model for sentiment analysis tasks regarding critical issues such as...

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Autores principales: Nezhad, Zahra Bokaee, Deihimi, Mohammad Ali
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8730646/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35720142
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijregi.2021.12.011
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author Nezhad, Zahra Bokaee
Deihimi, Mohammad Ali
author_facet Nezhad, Zahra Bokaee
Deihimi, Mohammad Ali
author_sort Nezhad, Zahra Bokaee
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess Iranian tweets in order to: (1) analyze Iranian views toward COVID-19-vaccination; (2) compare Iranian views toward homegrown and imported COVID-19-vaccines; (3) present an effective model for sentiment analysis tasks regarding critical issues such as COVID-19-vaccination. DESIGN AND METHODS: Persian tweets mentioning homegrown and imported vaccines were retrieved between April 1 and and September 30, 2021. The sentiments of retrieved tweets were identified using a deep-learning sentiment-analysis model. A sarcasm detection model, based on a random forest classifier, was used to identify sarcastic tweets and thus minimize misclassification. Finally, Iranian views toward COVID-19 vaccination were investigated. RESULTS: Subtle differences were found in the number of positive sentiments toward homegrown and imported vaccines, with the latter having dominant positive polarity. Negative sentiments regarding homegrown and imported vaccines increased in some months. No significant differences were observed between the percentages of overall positive and negative opinions toward vaccination. CONCLUSION: It is worrisome that negative sentiments toward homegrown and imported vaccines increased in some months in Iran. Health organizations can focus on Twitter in order to promote positive messaging toward COVID-19 vaccination. Sarcasm detection enabled the identification of tweets that ironically stated positive sentiments toward vaccination, thus improving the accuracy of the sentiment analysis results. Our sentiment analysis-sarcasm detection model is a reliable tool for mitigating classification problems.
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spelling pubmed-87306462022-01-06 Analyzing Iranian opinions toward COVID-19 vaccination Nezhad, Zahra Bokaee Deihimi, Mohammad Ali IJID Reg Coronavirus (COVID-19) Collection OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess Iranian tweets in order to: (1) analyze Iranian views toward COVID-19-vaccination; (2) compare Iranian views toward homegrown and imported COVID-19-vaccines; (3) present an effective model for sentiment analysis tasks regarding critical issues such as COVID-19-vaccination. DESIGN AND METHODS: Persian tweets mentioning homegrown and imported vaccines were retrieved between April 1 and and September 30, 2021. The sentiments of retrieved tweets were identified using a deep-learning sentiment-analysis model. A sarcasm detection model, based on a random forest classifier, was used to identify sarcastic tweets and thus minimize misclassification. Finally, Iranian views toward COVID-19 vaccination were investigated. RESULTS: Subtle differences were found in the number of positive sentiments toward homegrown and imported vaccines, with the latter having dominant positive polarity. Negative sentiments regarding homegrown and imported vaccines increased in some months. No significant differences were observed between the percentages of overall positive and negative opinions toward vaccination. CONCLUSION: It is worrisome that negative sentiments toward homegrown and imported vaccines increased in some months in Iran. Health organizations can focus on Twitter in order to promote positive messaging toward COVID-19 vaccination. Sarcasm detection enabled the identification of tweets that ironically stated positive sentiments toward vaccination, thus improving the accuracy of the sentiment analysis results. Our sentiment analysis-sarcasm detection model is a reliable tool for mitigating classification problems. Elsevier 2022-01-05 /pmc/articles/PMC8730646/ /pubmed/35720142 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijregi.2021.12.011 Text en © 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Coronavirus (COVID-19) Collection
Nezhad, Zahra Bokaee
Deihimi, Mohammad Ali
Analyzing Iranian opinions toward COVID-19 vaccination
title Analyzing Iranian opinions toward COVID-19 vaccination
title_full Analyzing Iranian opinions toward COVID-19 vaccination
title_fullStr Analyzing Iranian opinions toward COVID-19 vaccination
title_full_unstemmed Analyzing Iranian opinions toward COVID-19 vaccination
title_short Analyzing Iranian opinions toward COVID-19 vaccination
title_sort analyzing iranian opinions toward covid-19 vaccination
topic Coronavirus (COVID-19) Collection
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8730646/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35720142
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijregi.2021.12.011
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