Evolving Public Attitudes Towards the HPV Vaccine in China: A Fine-Grained Emotion Analysis of Sina Weibo (2016 vs. 2024)

In the digital age, social media significantly shapes public attitudes and emotional responses towards health interventions, such as HPV vaccination, which is critical in developing countries. This study employed a deep learning model to identify fine-grained emotions of 38,615 HPV-related tweets from 2016 to 2024, revealing significant shifts in public emotions. Notably, skepticism about vaccine commercialization motives heightened anger, while university outreach initiatives fostered positive emotions. Structural entropy analysis highlighted polarized emotional communication networks: the network of joy exhibited lower entropy with centralized information flow, whereas other emotions displayed higher entropy, fragmented dissemination, and enhanced cross-community communication efficiency. New communicators, such as campus accounts and music bloggers, played pivotal roles in spreading positive emotions, while individual bloggers in specific fields amplified negative emotions like anger, particularly in closed networks. This research underscores the intricate dynamics of online health communication and the need for targeted interventions to address stigma and enhance public awareness of HPV vaccination, providing valuable insights for future public health policy.