As Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, a research group at Tohoku University analyzed the contents of Twitter posts in Ukrainian and confirmed that the words "medicine" and "medical institution" increased rapidly. It was announced that expressions related to “mental health” are increasing as the number of people in Japan increases.
The research group believes that international support is even more necessary.
A research group at the International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University found that 98.5 million messages were sent to Twitter in Ukrainian between November 1, 2018 and August 10, 2018, before Russia's military invasion of Ukraine began. We analyzed the above and announced on the 20th.
According to it, the words "medicine" and "medical institution" increased rapidly immediately after the invasion, and it was found that the number of posts that wrote "diabetes medicine" increased 43 times.
It is believed that more people are worried about whether they can continue treatment for chronic diseases.
In addition, immediately after the invasion, the number of posts containing words such as "childbirth" and "newborn baby" increased, and it was analyzed that pregnant women and medical workers were looking for a safe place to give birth.
Furthermore, with the prolonged invasion, the number of expressions related to "mental health" such as "despair", which indicates signs of psychological distress and anxiety, increased by about 1.5 times, and depression and PTSD = trauma. He points out that it is necessary to keep an eye on whether the number of people complaining of post-stress disorder symptoms will increase further.
Associate Professor Susumu Fujii of the International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University, who revealed the results of the analysis at a press conference, said that multifaceted and international support for Ukraine is even more necessary, and said, I hope that visualization in this way will lead to specific next actions.”