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ANALYZING THE LINGUISTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF MARIJUANA USE BY INCOME USING SOCIAL MEDIA
Title
ANALYZING THE LINGUISTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF MARIJUANA USE BY INCOME USING SOCIAL MEDIA
Creator
Zeinali, Sahand
Date
2018, 2018-05
Description
Marijuana use and legality has been a widely-discussed topic in the recent years. Knowing that marijuana has different effects on health, mood...
Show moreMarijuana use and legality has been a widely-discussed topic in the recent years. Knowing that marijuana has different effects on health, mood and behavior after its use, it is important to understand what the underlying causes for marijuana use also are. As marijuana use is becoming more prevalent every day, it is crucial to know what the motives behind the users' tendencies are for smoking marijuana. To be able to identify the words/patterns associated with marijuana use prior to its use, we will need a real-time method to understand the problem on a deeper level with a better method than surveying users. In our study, we aim to understand the different linguistic characteristics of marijuana users based on their income. Social media's provision of data into understanding and tracking people's behavior can be very beneficial in understanding the contrast between the different social classes prior to marijuana use and understand what the underlying causes are for their marijuana use. In our experiment, we use social media to analyze the patterns and characteristics of marijuana use based on income class. By collecting data on Twitter, we then proceed to classify users based on their income. Using this method, we predict the income of each user by utilizing the user's Twitter activity and their linguistic characteristics based on the tweets associated with them. Through the experiment, we can identify patterns amongst the marijuana users in two different income classes and predict what class a user will be placed in based on their recent Twitter activity with a good accuracy.
M.S. in Computer Science, May 2018
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UNDERSTANDING MARIJUANA USE AS A TREATMENT OPTION FOR PEOPLE WITH EPILEPSY: USE, ATTITUDES, AND QUALITY OF LIFE
Title
UNDERSTANDING MARIJUANA USE AS A TREATMENT OPTION FOR PEOPLE WITH EPILEPSY: USE, ATTITUDES, AND QUALITY OF LIFE
Creator
Johnson, Kristina
Date
2021
Description
Epilepsy is the most common neurological disorder worldwide with a heterogeneous range of negative symptoms. Current treatments for epilepsy...
Show moreEpilepsy is the most common neurological disorder worldwide with a heterogeneous range of negative symptoms. Current treatments for epilepsy have side effects that can negatively impact the quality of a person’s life. Alternative treatments are being explored, including marijuana. This study aimed to understand marijuana use in adults with epilepsy across U.S. states. Rates of use, preferred method of use, and reasons to use and not use marijuana were examined. Additionally, levels of comfort discussing marijuana compared to other treatment options and with different types of providers were explored. Lastly, this was one of the first studies to examine the relationship between quality of life (QOL) and marijuana use for people with epilepsy. Participants included 128 individuals with epilepsy from 26 states, with non-legal states having significantly fewer people who reported using marijuana. Smoking was reported as the primary method of use, knowing someone else that uses as their primary reason for using, and health concerns as the primary reason not to use. There was no difference in level of comfort discussing marijuana compared to other treatments, and participants reported feeling most comfortable discussing marijuana with neurologists compared to other providers. Finally, total QOLIE-31 and the social functioning subscale were significantly lower among marijuana users; however, this difference did not remain when anxiety was entered as a covariate. In fact, the relationship between anxiety and QOL was significant, with anxiety accounting for η2 = .12 to η2 = .57 of the variance in QOLIE-31 subscale scores, controlling for marijuana use. Findings from this study further the understanding of marijuana use by people with epilepsy in the United States.
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