Cross-Platform Detection of Psychiatric Hospitalization via Social Media Data: Comparison Study

BackgroundPrevious research has shown the feasibility of using machine learning models trained on social media data from a single platform (eg, Facebook or Twitter) to distinguish individuals either with a diagnosis of mental illness or experiencing an adverse outcome from he...

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Main Authors: Viet Cuong Nguyen, Nathaniel Lu, John M Kane, Michael L Birnbaum, Munmun De Choudhury
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: JMIR Publications 2022-12-01
Series:JMIR Mental Health
Online Access:https://mental.jmir.org/2022/12/e39747
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author Viet Cuong Nguyen
Nathaniel Lu
John M Kane
Michael L Birnbaum
Munmun De Choudhury
author_facet Viet Cuong Nguyen
Nathaniel Lu
John M Kane
Michael L Birnbaum
Munmun De Choudhury
author_sort Viet Cuong Nguyen
collection DOAJ
description BackgroundPrevious research has shown the feasibility of using machine learning models trained on social media data from a single platform (eg, Facebook or Twitter) to distinguish individuals either with a diagnosis of mental illness or experiencing an adverse outcome from healthy controls. However, the performance of such models on data from novel social media platforms unseen in the training data (eg, Instagram and TikTok) has not been investigated in previous literature. ObjectiveOur study examined the feasibility of building machine learning classifiers that can effectively predict an upcoming psychiatric hospitalization given social media data from platforms unseen in the classifiers’ training data despite the preliminary evidence on identity fragmentation on the investigated social media platforms. MethodsWindowed timeline data of patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum disorder before a known hospitalization event and healthy controls were gathered from 3 platforms: Facebook (254/268, 94.8% of participants), Twitter (51/268, 19% of participants), and Instagram (134/268, 50% of participants). We then used a 3 × 3 combinatorial binary classification design to train machine learning classifiers and evaluate their performance on testing data from all available platforms. We further compared results from models in intraplatform experiments (ie, training and testing data belonging to the same platform) to those from models in interplatform experiments (ie, training and testing data belonging to different platforms). Finally, we used Shapley Additive Explanation values to extract the top predictive features to explain and compare the underlying constructs that predict hospitalization on each platform. ResultsWe found that models in intraplatform experiments on average achieved an F1-score of 0.72 (SD 0.07) in predicting a psychiatric hospitalization because of schizophrenia spectrum disorder, which is 68% higher than the average of models in interplatform experiments at an F1-score of 0.428 (SD 0.11). When investigating the key drivers for divergence in construct validities between models, an analysis of top features for the intraplatform models showed both low predictive feature overlap between the platforms and low pairwise rank correlation (<0.1) between the platforms’ top feature rankings. Furthermore, low average cosine similarity of data between platforms within participants in comparison with the same measurement on data within platforms between participants points to evidence of identity fragmentation of participants between platforms. ConclusionsWe demonstrated that models built on one platform’s data to predict critical mental health treatment outcomes such as hospitalization do not generalize to another platform. In our case, this is because different social media platforms consistently reflect different segments of participants’ identities. With the changing ecosystem of social media use among different demographic groups and as web-based identities continue to become fragmented across platforms, further research on holistic approaches to harnessing these diverse data sources is required.
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spelling doaj.art-09537cd5c311453ea1f2c0820f3664022023-08-28T23:30:32ZengJMIR PublicationsJMIR Mental Health2368-79592022-12-01912e3974710.2196/39747Cross-Platform Detection of Psychiatric Hospitalization via Social Media Data: Comparison StudyViet Cuong Nguyenhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-8504-9350Nathaniel Luhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-9695-2249John M Kanehttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-2628-9442Michael L Birnbaumhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4285-7868Munmun De Choudhuryhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-8939-264X BackgroundPrevious research has shown the feasibility of using machine learning models trained on social media data from a single platform (eg, Facebook or Twitter) to distinguish individuals either with a diagnosis of mental illness or experiencing an adverse outcome from healthy controls. However, the performance of such models on data from novel social media platforms unseen in the training data (eg, Instagram and TikTok) has not been investigated in previous literature. ObjectiveOur study examined the feasibility of building machine learning classifiers that can effectively predict an upcoming psychiatric hospitalization given social media data from platforms unseen in the classifiers’ training data despite the preliminary evidence on identity fragmentation on the investigated social media platforms. MethodsWindowed timeline data of patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum disorder before a known hospitalization event and healthy controls were gathered from 3 platforms: Facebook (254/268, 94.8% of participants), Twitter (51/268, 19% of participants), and Instagram (134/268, 50% of participants). We then used a 3 × 3 combinatorial binary classification design to train machine learning classifiers and evaluate their performance on testing data from all available platforms. We further compared results from models in intraplatform experiments (ie, training and testing data belonging to the same platform) to those from models in interplatform experiments (ie, training and testing data belonging to different platforms). Finally, we used Shapley Additive Explanation values to extract the top predictive features to explain and compare the underlying constructs that predict hospitalization on each platform. ResultsWe found that models in intraplatform experiments on average achieved an F1-score of 0.72 (SD 0.07) in predicting a psychiatric hospitalization because of schizophrenia spectrum disorder, which is 68% higher than the average of models in interplatform experiments at an F1-score of 0.428 (SD 0.11). When investigating the key drivers for divergence in construct validities between models, an analysis of top features for the intraplatform models showed both low predictive feature overlap between the platforms and low pairwise rank correlation (<0.1) between the platforms’ top feature rankings. Furthermore, low average cosine similarity of data between platforms within participants in comparison with the same measurement on data within platforms between participants points to evidence of identity fragmentation of participants between platforms. ConclusionsWe demonstrated that models built on one platform’s data to predict critical mental health treatment outcomes such as hospitalization do not generalize to another platform. In our case, this is because different social media platforms consistently reflect different segments of participants’ identities. With the changing ecosystem of social media use among different demographic groups and as web-based identities continue to become fragmented across platforms, further research on holistic approaches to harnessing these diverse data sources is required.https://mental.jmir.org/2022/12/e39747
spellingShingle Viet Cuong Nguyen
Nathaniel Lu
John M Kane
Michael L Birnbaum
Munmun De Choudhury
Cross-Platform Detection of Psychiatric Hospitalization via Social Media Data: Comparison Study
JMIR Mental Health
title Cross-Platform Detection of Psychiatric Hospitalization via Social Media Data: Comparison Study
title_full Cross-Platform Detection of Psychiatric Hospitalization via Social Media Data: Comparison Study
title_fullStr Cross-Platform Detection of Psychiatric Hospitalization via Social Media Data: Comparison Study
title_full_unstemmed Cross-Platform Detection of Psychiatric Hospitalization via Social Media Data: Comparison Study
title_short Cross-Platform Detection of Psychiatric Hospitalization via Social Media Data: Comparison Study
title_sort cross platform detection of psychiatric hospitalization via social media data comparison study
url https://mental.jmir.org/2022/12/e39747
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AT johnmkane crossplatformdetectionofpsychiatrichospitalizationviasocialmediadatacomparisonstudy
AT michaellbirnbaum crossplatformdetectionofpsychiatrichospitalizationviasocialmediadatacomparisonstudy
AT munmundechoudhury crossplatformdetectionofpsychiatrichospitalizationviasocialmediadatacomparisonstudy