Abstract
BACKGROUND: Twitter can address the mental health challenges of dementia care. The aims of this study is to explore the contents and user interactions of tweets mentioning dementia to gain insights for dementia care. METHODS: We collected 35,260 tweets mentioning Alzheimer’s or dementia on World Alzheimer’s Day, September 21(st) in 2015. Topic modeling and social network analysis were applied to uncover content and structure of user communication. RESULTS: Global users generated keywords related to mental health and care including #psychology and #mental health. There were similarities and differences between the UK and the US in tweet content. The macro-level analysis uncovered substantial public interest on dementia. The meso-level network analysis revealed that top leaders of communities were spiritual organizations and traditional media. CONCLUSIONS: The application of topic modeling and multi-level network analysis while incorporating visualization techniques can promote a global level understanding regarding public attention, interests, and insights regarding dementia care and mental health.