The subjectivity of long-term care policies in Taiwan: Seniors or disabled? - An example from Tsai's Facebook page

Objectives: The aim of this study was to understand if people were able to discern the difference between "seniors" and "disabled" from Tsai's long-term care policies and the comments on Facebook by using content analysis and text mining. Methods: The data were retrieved from Facebook messages of Tsai Ing-wen from July 1st, 2011 to September 14th, 2016. We carried out content analysis by grouping the terms into six classifications: no mention, all disabled, some disabled, both disabled and seniors, some seniors, and all seniors. For text mining, we analyzed the frequency and relationship between keywords in the text. Results: Content analysis revealed that in most people's minds, "long-term care" meant taking care of "seniors". Text-mining Tsai's Facebook posts revealed "long-term care" and "aging" to have a correlation coefficient of 0.61; analysis of comments on messages found that "long-term care" and "seniors" fell into one group. Conclusions: According to the Long-Term Care Services Act, long-term care means care in accordance with the needs of any individual whose mental or physical incapacity has lasted or is expected to last for six months or longer. Both research methods found "long-term care" to be associated with seniors, while those with disabilities were neglected.