Abstract:
Introduction: Globally, the prevalence of mental health problems, especially depression, is at an all-time high. The objective of this study is to utilize machine learning models and sentiment analysis techniques to predict the level of depression earlier in social media users' posts.
Methods: The datasets used in this research were obtained from Twitter posts. Four machine learning models, namely extreme gradient boost (XGB) Classifier, Random Forest, Logistic Regression, and support vector machine (SVM), were employed for the prediction task.
Results: The SVM and Logistic Regression models yielded the most accurate results when applied to the provided datasets. However, the Logistic Regression model exhibited a slightly higher level of accuracy compared to SVM. Importantly, the logistic regression model demonstrated the advantage of requiring less execution time.
Discussion: The findings of this study highlight the potential of utilizing machine learning models and sentiment analysis techniques for early detection of depression in social media users. The effectiveness of SVM and Logistic Regression models, with Logistic Regression being more efficient in terms of execution time, suggests their suitability for practical implementation in real-world scenarios.
