EQUI-Tech

Sentiment, Readability, and Content Analysis

In this work we investigated the readability of digital dementia information as well as the emotions conveyed in this information. We did this by collecting information from dementia advocacy websites, dementia blogs and dementia medical articles, and analyzing this information using large language models. Our findings indicate that there is an abundance of digital dementia information written in English that is targeted at people with dementia, but this information is not readable by a general audience. This is problematic considering that people with <12 years of education are at a higher risk of developing dementia. Further, our findings demonstrate that digital dementia information written in English has a negative tone, which may be a contributing factor to the mental health crisis many people with dementia face after receiving a diagnosis. Therefore, we call for content creators to lower readability scores to make the information more accessible to a general audience and to focus their efforts on providing information in a way that does not perpetuate overly negative narratives of dementia.