Gastrointestinal (GI) discomfort refers to issues such as bloating, abdominal pain, acid reflux or constipation. It affects a significant portion of the population with a well-known impact on well-being but there is limited volume of real-world data on gastrointestinal discomfort.
As part of our collaboration with Danone Nutricia Research, an observational study based on social media as a real-world information source has been conducted to better understand how French-speaking web users perceive GI discomfort.
To carry out this analysis, which has been the subject of a scientific publication in JMIR, approximately 200,000 messages posted by nearly 37,000 web users were analyzed. Most active users discussing GI discomfort are women aged below 40 years[1]. The three most discussed topics are everyday life, diet and digestive process. Among the factors perceived by users as determinants of GI discomfort, psychological factors, food and allergens are the main causes mentioned by web users. Concerning symptoms, abdominal pain, nausea and colic are the most mentioned in the analyzed messages.
Discover more detailed results in our infographic about GI discomfort.
Sources
[1] In a sub-corpus of messages enabling gender and age range characterization – https://doi.org/10.2196/17247
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