National Drug Research Institute, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, 6008, Australia.
BMC Public Health. 2018 Jun 13;18(1):726. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5645-9.
Alcohol marketing on social networking sites (SNS) is associated with alcohol use among young people. Alcohol companies adapt their online marketing content to specific national contexts and responses to such content differ by national settings. However, there exists very little academic work comparing the association between alcohol marketing on SNS and alcohol use among young people in different national settings and across different SNS. Therefore, we aimed to extend the limited existing work by investigating and comparing the association between self-reported exposure to alcohol marketing on three leading SNS (Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter) and alcohol use among young people in diverse national contexts (India and Australia).
Cross-sectional, self-report data were obtained from a convenience sample of 631 respondents (330 in India; 301 in Australia) aged 13-25 years via online surveys. Respondents answered questions on their drinking behaviors and involvement with alcohol marketing on SNS.
Many respondents from both countries reported interacting with alcohol content online, predominantly on Facebook, followed by YouTube and then Twitter. The interaction was primarily in the forms of posting/liking/sharing/commenting on items posted on alcohol companies' social media accounts, viewing the event page/attending the event advertised by an alcohol company via social media, and/or accessing an alcohol website. Multivariate analyses demonstrated significant associations between respondents' interaction with alcohol content and drinking levels, with effects differing by SNS, demographic group, and country. For example, having friends who shared alcohol-related content was an important predictor of usual alcohol consumption for Indian respondents (p < .001), whereas posting alcohol-related information themselves was a stronger predictor among Australians (p < .001).
The results suggest that interaction with alcohol-related content on SNS is associated with young people's alcohol use behaviors and that these behaviors vary by national settings. This study extends previous work by demonstrating this connection across varying social media platforms and national contexts. The results highlight the need to formulate and implement strategies to effectively regulate the SNS alcohol marketing, especially among younger SNS users.
社交媒体（SNS）上的酒精营销与年轻人的饮酒行为有关。酒精公司会根据特定的国家背景调整其在线营销内容，而对这些内容的反应则因国家背景而异。然而，在不同的国家背景和不同的 SNS 上，关于 SNS 上的酒精营销与年轻人饮酒之间的关联，几乎没有学术研究进行比较。因此，我们旨在通过调查和比较来自不同国家背景（印度和澳大利亚）的年轻人在三个主要 SNS（Facebook、YouTube 和 Twitter）上报告的暴露于酒精营销和饮酒之间的关联，来扩展有限的现有研究工作。
通过在线调查，从 13-25 岁的便利样本中获得了来自 631 名受访者（印度 330 名，澳大利亚 301 名）的横断面、自我报告数据。受访者回答了关于他们饮酒行为和 SNS 上酒精营销参与的问题。
两国的许多受访者都报告说在网上与酒精内容进行互动，主要是在 Facebook 上，其次是 YouTube，然后是 Twitter。这种互动主要以在酒精公司社交媒体账户上发布的内容上发布/点赞/分享/评论、通过社交媒体查看酒精公司广告的活动页面/参加活动、以及/或者访问酒精网站的形式出现。多变量分析表明，受访者与酒精内容的互动与饮酒水平之间存在显著关联，其影响因 SNS、人口统计学群体和国家而异。例如，印度受访者的朋友分享与酒精相关的内容是其通常饮酒量的一个重要预测因素（p < 0.001），而澳大利亚受访者自己发布与酒精相关的信息是一个更强的预测因素（p < 0.001）。
结果表明，在 SNS 上与酒精相关内容的互动与年轻人的饮酒行为有关，而这些行为因国家背景而异。这项研究通过在不同的社交媒体平台和国家背景下展示这种联系，扩展了之前的工作。结果强调了制定和实施策略来有效监管 SNS 酒精营销的必要性，尤其是针对年轻的 SNS 用户。
