The kiss of death–Unearthing conversations surrounding Chagas disease on YouTube

This study employed Uses and Gratification Theory (UGT), Health Belief Model (HBM) and a mix of techniques to highlight the important role of social media in health communication. A total of 602 comments posted by YouTube users as they interacted with news items reporting on Chagas disease were thus analysed. A web-based software called Netlytic was used to capture and conduct text analytics. The sentiment of user comments on each of the five videos selected for this analysis was measured using SentiStrength. This study, therefore, achieved four objectives. First, it determined the most engaging comments amongst YouTube users as they interacted with Chagas disease news information. Second, it identified the most common issues or concerns discussed by YouTube users. Third, it analyzed the extent to which YouTube users commenting about Chagas disease conveyed information related to (a) prevention benefits, (b) barriers, (c) susceptibility to Chagas disease, (d) severity of Chagas and (e) self-efficacy as part of the Health Belief Model. And finally, it measured the levels of positive and negative sentiment in the comments made by YouTube users. Study findings, limitations, and implications for future research have been discussed as well.