Health activism, vaccine, and mpox discourse: BERTopic based mixed-method analyses of tweets from sexual minority men and gender diverse (SMMGD) individuals in the U.S.

OBJECTIVES: To synthesize discussions among sexual minority men and gender diverse (SMMGD) individuals on mpox, given limited representation of SMMGD voices in existing mpox literature.

METHODS: BERTopic (a topic modeling technique) was employed with human validations to analyze mpox-related tweets ( n = 8,688; October 2020-September 2022) from 2,326 self-identified SMMGD individuals in the U.S.; followed by content analysis and geographic analysis.

RESULTS: BERTopic identified 11 topics: health activism (29.81%); mpox vaccination (25.81%) and adverse events (0.98%); sarcasm, jokes, emotional expressions (14.04%); COVID-19 and mpox (7.32%); government/public health response (6.12%); mpox symptoms (2.74%); case reports (2.21%); puns on the virus' naming (i.e., monkeypox; 0.86%); media publicity (0.68%); mpox in children (0.67%). Mpox health activism negatively correlated with LGB social climate index at U.S. state level, ρ = -0.322, p = 0.031.

CONCLUSIONS: SMMGD discussions on mpox encompassed utilitarian (e.g., vaccine access, case reports, mpox symptoms) and emotionally-charged themes-advocating against homophobia, misinformation, and stigma. Mpox health activism was more prevalent in states with lower LGB social acceptance.

PUBLIC HEALTH IMPLICATIONS: Findings illuminate SMMGD engagement with mpox discourse, underscoring the need for more inclusive health communication strategies in infectious disease outbreaks to control associated stigma.