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Scientific Reports logoLink to Scientific Reports
. 2020 Jul 7;10:11456. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-68555-5

Author Correction: Variability in Language used on Social Media Prior to Hospital Visits

Sharath Chandra Guntuku 1,, H Andrew Schwartz 2, Adarsh Kashyap 2, Jessica S Gaulton 1,3, Daniel C Stokes 1, David A Asch 1,4, Lyle H Ungar 1, Raina M Merchant 1
PMCID: PMC7338354  PMID: 32632209

Correction to: Scientific Reports 10.1038/s41598-020-60750-8, published online 12 March 2020

The Article contains errors.

In the Results section under the subheading “Identifying differentially expressed language features prior to a hospital visit”

“Dictionary-based: Prior to ED visits, patients less more likely to post about leisure (d =  − 0.225), associated words such as ‘family’, ‘fun’, ‘play’, ‘nap’, internet slang (netspeak) (d =  − 0.374) words such as ‘:)’, ‘fb’, ‘ya’, ‘ur’, and informal language (d =  − 0.345) with words such as ‘u’, ‘lol’, ‘smh’, ‘da’. Patients also use personal pronouns less (d =  − 0.345) prior to ED visits compared to random time windows.”

should read:

“Dictionary-based: Prior to ED visits, patients were less likely to post about leisure (d =  − 0.225) with words such as ‘fun’, ‘play’, ‘nap’, internet slang (netspeak) (d =  − 0.374) such as ‘u’, ‘da’, ‘smh’, and informal language (d =  − 0.345) with words such as ‘lol’, ‘:)’, ‘b’.”

In Table 2 under “Categories that decrease in usage before emergency visit”, the row “1st person singular” is a duplication of row “informal speech”.

In Table 2 under “Change in linguistic topics”, the row “even, still, tho, though, yet, blah” is a duplication of the row “kids, child, their, children, mother, father”.

The correct Table 2 appears below as Table 1

Table 1.

Statistical insights on differential language expression prior to an emergency visit*.

Feature Cohen's d p value (corrected) Mean diff-of-diff 95% CI
Emergency
Change in Lnguistic Style/Mental Well-being
Categories that increase in usage before emergency visit
Anxious 0.241 < 0.001 0.070 [0.1, 0.38]
Depressed 0.238 < 0.001 0.066 [0.1, 0.37]
Arousal (how exciting the post is) 0.191 0.011 0.051 [0.06, 0.33]
Valence (positive affect) 0.168 0.017 0.079 [0.03, 0.3]
#posts b/w 9 am–12 pm 0.160 0.020 0.016 [0.02, 0.3]
#posts b/w 12–3 pm 0.144 0.047 0.013 [0.01, 0.28]
Categories that decrease in usage before emergency visit
Netspeak (‘u’, ‘da’, ‘smh’) − 0.374 < 0.001 − 0.01 [− 0.51, − 0.24]
Informal Speech (‘lol’, ‘:)’, ‘b’) − 0.345 < 0.001 − 0.012 [− 0.48, − 0.21]
Leisure (‘fun’, ‘play’, ‘nap’) − 0.225 0.001 − 0.002 [− 0.36, − 0.09]
Change in Linguistic Topics
Topics that increase in usage before emergency visit
Hospital, pain, surgery, blood, doctor, nurse 0.230 0.001 0.001 [0.09, 0.37]
Kids, child, their, children, mother, father 0.165 0.021 < 0.001 [0.03,0.3]
Thankful, very, amazing, most, blessed, wonderful 0.142 0.013 < 0.001 [0.01,0.28]
Topics that decrease in usage before emergency visit
luv, nite, sum, 2 day, kidz, doin − 0.315 < 0.001 − 0.001 [− 0.45, − 0.18]
< 3, tht, lovin, bt, missin, ima − 0.308 < 0.001 < 0.001 [− 0.44, − 0.17]
nite, fb, bed, gn, sleep, night − 0.295 < 0.001 − 0.001 [− 0.43, − 0.15]
jus, bored, crib, house, chilin, hmu − 0.287 < 0.001 − 0.001 [− 0.42, − 0.14]
lol, ctfu, funny, too, yo, lmao − 0.262 < 0.001 − 0.001 [− 0.4, − 0.13]

*Positive cohen’s d indicates an increase in the given style, while a negative score indicates decrease. Effect sizes of individual linguistic features (diff-of-diff b/w true and null events) for emergency visits. Significance was measured using paired, two-tailed t-test with Benjamini–Hochberg p-correction.

In Table 3 under “Categories that decrease in usage before inpatient visit”, the row “1st person singular (‘lol’, ‘:)’, ‘b’)” is a duplication of the row “Informal Speech (‘lol’, ‘:)’, ‘b’)”.

In Table 3 under “Change in Linguistic Topics”, the row “even, still, tho, yet, blah, mad” is a duplication of the row “kids, child, their, children, mother, father”.

In Table 3 under “Topics that decrease in usage before inpatient visit”, the row “better, feeling, little, hope, bit, type” is a duplication of the row “lol, ha, ctfu, lmao, funny, haha” and the row “no, what, matter, how, always, end” is a duplication of the row “:), show, crew, awesome, fashion, guys”.

The correct Table 3 appears below as Table 2

Table 2.

Statistical insights on differential language expression prior to an inpatient visit*.

Feature Cohen's d p value (corrected) Mean diff-of-diff 95% CI
Inpatient visits
Change in Linguistic Style/ Mental Well-being
Categories that increase in usage before inpatient visit
Depressed 0.306 0.001 0.089 [0.09, 0.52]
Anxious 0.286 0.001 0.084 [0.07, 0.50]
Family (‘baby’, ‘ma’,‘son’, ‘family’) 0.306 0.001 0.003 [0.09, 0.52]
Health (‘tired’, ‘pain’, ‘sick’, ‘ill’) 0.255 0.032 0.001 [0.04, 0.48]
Categories that decrease in usage before inpatient visit
Informal Speech (‘lol’, ‘:)’, ‘b’) − 0.392 < 0.001 − 0.014 [− 0.61, − 0.17]
Hear (‘say’, ‘hear’, ‘listen’, ‘heard’) − 0.365 0.003 − 0.001 [− 0.58, − 0.15]
Affiliation (‘we’, ‘our’, ‘friends’) − 0.361 0.001 − 0.003 [− 0.58, − 0.14]
Extraverted − 0.357 < 0.001 − 0.080 [− 0.57, − 0.14]
Drives (‘up’, ‘get’, ‘love’, ‘good’) − 0.354 < 0.001 − 0.006 [− 0.57, − 0.14]
Netspeak (‘u’, ‘lol’, ‘da’, ‘smh’) − 0.35 < 0.001 − 0.01 [− 0.57, − 0.13]
Nonfluencies (‘ugg’, ‘well’, ‘oh’, ‘er’) − 0.335 0.001 − 0.001 [− 0.55, − 0.12]
Leisure (‘fun’, ‘play’, ‘nap’) − 0.321 0.006 − 0.002 [− 0.54, − 0.1]
Reward (‘get’, ‘take’, ‘best’, ‘win’) − 0.314 0.001 − 0.002 [− 0.53, − 0.1]
Affective processes (‘:)’, ‘ugh’, ‘happy’) − 0.242 0.023 − 0.004 [− 0.46, − 0.03]
Positive emotion (‘love’, ‘good’, ‘better’) − 0.228 0.013 − 0.004 [− 0.44, − 0.01]
Swear words (‘a**’, ‘f**k’, ‘hell’, ‘wtf’) − 0.209 0.023 − 0.002 [− 0.43, 0.00]
Change in Linguistic Topics
Topics that increase in usage before inpatient visit
Check, yes, doctors, office, waiting, appointment 0.504 < 0.001 0.001 [0.29, 0.72]
Hospital, pain, surgery, blood, meds, nurse 0.380 < 0.001 0.001 [0.16, 0.6]
Baby, mommy, girl, son, boy, daughter 0.377 < 0.001 0.001 [0.16, 0.59]
Days, more, two, weeks, until, couple 0.301 0.014 0.001 [0.08,0.52]
Kids, child, their, children, mother, father 0.275 0.006 0.001 [0.06,0.49]
Hurt, head, bad, body, stomach, :(, ugh 0.267 0.026 0.001 [0.05, 0.48]
Topics that decrease in usage before inpatient visit
Calling, phone, answer, hear, ooo, talking − 0.488 < 0.001 − 0.001 [− 0.71, − 0.27]
Lol, ha, ctfu, lmao, funny, haha − 0.429 < 0.001 − 0.001 [− 0.65, − 0.21]
Cool, funny, tho, used, remember, seem − 0.395 < 0.001 < 0.001 [− 0.61, − 0.18]
:), show, crew, awesome, fashion, guys − 0.381 < 0.001 < 0.001 [− 0.6, − 0.16]
Wat, tht, juss, imma, luv, sum − 0.366 < 0.001 < 0.001 [− 0.59, − 0.16]

*Effect sizes of individual linguistic features (diff-of-diff b/w true and null events) for inpatient visits. Significance was measured using paired, two-tailed t-test with Benjamini–Hochberg p-correction.

These corrections do not affect the conclusions of the Article.


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