Concerns and stress caused by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic: A quantitative text analysis of Twitter data

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has seriously affected individual lifestyles and circumstances. This study aimed to explore the public concerns and stress caused by the pandemic. Data were collected from Twitter posts that included the terms ‘corona’ AND (‘fatigue’ OR ‘stress’ OR ‘depression’) from January 15 to March 17, 2020 (9 weeks; 63 days). Text data in 241,720 posts were analyzed using a quantitative text analysis technique employing KH Coder software. The results showed that concerns and stress related to coronavirus varied over a wide range of aspects, including fear of infection, stress due to restriction of daily behavior and recreational activities, concerns over government epidemiological measures and economic damage, and concerns arising from media information. In particular, concerns and stress resulting from restriction of daily behavior and recreational activities were found to have increased through the lengthening of restrictions. These results suggested a need for public support in order to maintain physical and mental health. It was also suggested that school health education and social health promotion should be considered to include approaches for managing stress and practical knowledge of media literacy which adapt to the spread of social network communication during the pandemic phase.