Xie Zidian, Wang Xueting, Gu Yu, Li Dongmei
Department of Clinical & Translational Research, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, United States.
Goergen Institute for Data Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, United States.
Interact J Med Res. 2021 Jul 6;10(3):e27302. doi: 10.2196/27302.
Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has become more popular than cigarette smoking, especially among youth. Social media platforms, including YouTube, are a popular means of sharing information about e-cigarette use (vaping).
This study aimed to characterize the content and user engagement of e-cigarette-related YouTube videos.
The top 400 YouTube search videos related to e-cigarettes were collected in January 2020. Among them, 340 valid videos were classified into provaping, vaping-warning, and neutral categories by hand coding. Additionally, the content of e-cigarette videos and their user engagement (including average views and likes) were analyzed and compared.
While provaping videos were dominant among e-cigarette-related YouTube videos from 2007 to 2017, vaping-warning videos started to emerge in 2013 and became dominant between 2018 and 2019. Compared to vaping-warning videos, provaping videos had higher average daily views (1077 vs 822) but lower average daily likes (12 vs 15). Among 161 provaping videos, videos on user demonstration (n=100, 62.11%) were dominant, and videos on comparison with smoking had the highest user engagement (2522 average daily views and 28 average daily likes). Conversely, among 141 vaping-warning videos, videos on potential health risks were the most popular topic (n=57, 40.42%) with the highest user engagement (1609 average daily views and 33 average daily likes).
YouTube was dominated by provaping videos, with the majority of videos on user demonstrations before 2018. The vaping-warning videos became dominant between 2018 and 2019, with videos on potential health risks being the most popular topic. This study provides updated surveillance on e-cigarette-related YouTube videos and some important guidance on associated social media regulations.
电子烟的使用已变得比吸烟更普遍，尤其是在年轻人中。包括YouTube在内的社交媒体平台是分享电子烟使用（雾化）信息的常用手段。
本研究旨在描述与电子烟相关的YouTube视频的内容和用户参与度。
2020年1月收集了YouTube上与电子烟相关的前400个搜索视频。其中，340个有效视频通过人工编码分为支持雾化、雾化警告和中性三类。此外，对电子烟视频的内容及其用户参与度（包括平均观看次数和点赞数）进行了分析和比较。
虽然在2007年至2017年与电子烟相关的YouTube视频中，支持雾化的视频占主导地位，但雾化警告视频在2013年开始出现，并在2018年至2019年期间占主导地位。与雾化警告视频相比，支持雾化的视频平均每日观看次数更高（1077次对822次），但平均每日点赞数更低（12次对15次）。在161个支持雾化的视频中，用户演示视频（n = 100，62.11%）占主导地位，与吸烟比较的视频用户参与度最高（平均每日观看2522次，平均每日点赞28次）。相反，在141个雾化警告视频中，关于潜在健康风险的视频是最热门的主题（n = 57，40.42%），用户参与度最高（平均每日观看1609次，平均每日点赞33次）。
YouTube上支持雾化的视频占主导地位，2018年之前大多数视频是用户演示。雾化警告视频在2018年至2019年期间占主导地位，关于潜在健康风险的视频是最热门的主题。本研究提供了与电子烟相关的YouTube视频的最新监测情况以及对相关社交媒体监管的一些重要指导。
