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April 10, 2026Online Journal of Public Health Informatics0 citationsOpen Access

Comparison of Artificial Intelligence Tools With Human Coding for Sentiment, Topic, and Thematic Analysis Tasks of Public Health Datasets During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia: Case Study

DHDanielle HutchinsonCSIRO Health and BiosecurityLLLauren LeeCSIRO Health and BiosecurityHSHaley Stone

Key Points

  • This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of AI tools compared to human coding in analyzing public health datasets during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Compared AI tools and human coding for sentiment, topic, and thematic analysis in health-related texts.
  • Utilized public health datasets from the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.
  • Assessed reliability of AI tools combined with human oversight for better accuracy.
  • AI tools showed limited reliability for sentiment classification without human input.
  • Thematic exploration was more promising when AI was used alongside human review.
  • Further applications and improvements are necessary for analyzing non-English datasets.

Abstract

Accessible AI tools demonstrate limited reliability for sentiment classification of health-related online text but show promise for rapid thematic exploration when combined with human oversight. These tools could complement traditional qualitative research in the context of health emergencies; however, they require human review to enhance the accuracy of interpretation. Further research is needed for non-English datasets.

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Cite This Study

Hutchinson et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69d894ce6c1944d70ce05bcfhttps://doi.org/10.2196/80824
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