Table 2.
The 12-topic model generated by TMA is illustrated with themes arising from the analysis of posts associated with each topic.
| Structural topic modelling topics | Contextualised interpretation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original topic | Frequently co-occurring words | Most exclusive words | Theme identifier | Description |
| 1 | person, comfort, care, digniti, make, final, allow | allow, comfort, final, digniti, person, make, gentl | Dignity and comfort | Actions to enhance comfort, dignity and freedom from pain at the end of life |
| 2 | may, plan, will, place, death, process, long | discuss, process, benefit, short, long, carri, agre | Planning for end of life | Involves planning for end of life while person is still capable of contributing their wishes |
| 3 | provid, ill, termin, mean, someon, cure, individu | someon, highest, provid, promot, meet, rather, painfre | Quality of life | In incurable conditions that the focus becomes quality of life |
| 4 | can, care, symptom, curat, home, phase, manag | deliv, hospit, enabl, general, necessarili, phase, residenti | Care in diverse settings | Diverse places of care (gap broad symptom management). In dementia, the terminal phase is often not evident. Delivered where the person needs it |
| 5 | one, love, time, care, famili, mean, make | talk, let, music, thing, room, said, want | Social connection maintained | Family, social emphases |
| 6 | end, possibl, pain, stage, best, ensur, give | free, respect, ensur, possibl, dignifi, end, manner | Optimal care environment | Dignified, familiar, peaceful environments |
| 7 | care, patient, symptom, pain, ill, focus, relief | stress, serious, specialis, focus, reduc, allevi, discomfort | Symptom control | Verbatim quotes dominate – exclude |
| 8 | support, care, famili, also, given, last, involv | stress, serious, specialis, focus, reduc, allevi, discomfort | Family support | Family support, recognition of family as part of the palliative care provision as well as in need of support from palliative care |
| 9 | dementia, need, diseas, die, live, peopl, help | failur, amp, diseas, kidney, motor, neuron, heart | Appropriate for any life-limiting condition | Applicable to a variety of conditions other than cancer and dementia |
| 10 | life, qualiti, limit, condit, care, enhanc, manag | limit, condit, qualiti, life, enhanc, maintain, quantity | Quality of death | Promoting quality of living and dying |
| 11 | approach, symptom, reliev, care, aim, use, maximis | maximis, multi, function, disciplinari, reliev, aim, chaplain | Multidisciplinary team | Verbatim quotes dominate – exclude |
| 12 | physic, life, spiritu, emot, famili, ill, problem | problem, physic, threaten, face, spiritu, emot, assess | Holism | Verbatim quotes dominate – exclude |
TMA: topic modelling analysis.
Following TMA, posts within each topic were thematically analysed resulting in the contextualised interpretation shown here. Topics 7, 11 and 12 were excluded from further analysis due to high frequency of third-party quotes in the representative sample.