Qualitative and Artificial Intelligence-Based Sentiment Analysis of Turkish Twitter Messages Related to Autism Spectrum Disorders

Background: The aim of our study was to conduct an emotional analysis of Turkish Twitter messages related to autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Methods: An emotion analysis was performed using quantitative and qualitative analysis methods on Turkish Twitter messages shared between November 2021 and January 2022 that contained the words "autism" and "autistic." Results: It was found that 81.5% of the 13,042 messages that constituted the sample of this study contained neutral emotions. The most frequently used words in Twitter messages were autism, a, universe, strong, patience, warriors, and happy. The qualitative analysis revealed three main themes. These themes were: "experiences," "informing society and awareness," and "humiliation." Conclusion: In this study, it was found that Turkish Twitter messages related to autism, which were analyzed using artificial intelligence-based emotion analysis, often contained neutral emotions. While the content of these messages, often shared by parents, was related to experiences, and the messages shared by pediatric psychiatrists and rehabilitation center employees were informative in nature, it was determined that the word "autism" was used to insult, which is outside of its medical meaning.