Contributed Talk 6: Symptoms, Scares, and Misclassifications: Information Sharing Behavior Across Online Birth Control Communities

As in-person health appointments continue to be limited, the role of online health communities as outlets for the exchange of information and emotional support can only increase in prominence. Further analysis and comparisons of these communities can provide valuable insights to the medical community and the general public. In a case study of two online birth control communities, we use topic modeling and a user-trained classifier to show that contraceptive information is sought and shared differently in different online settings.