School of Social Work and Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America.
Robertson School of Media and Culture, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2021 Nov 16;16(11):e0259947. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259947. eCollection 2021.
The current study aimed to understand the links between social media use and alcohol consumption during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data were from the national Understanding American Study, a probability-based Internet panel weighted to represent the U.S. population. Subjects (N = 5874; 51% female) were adults, 18 years and older, who completed a March survey (wave 1) and a follow-up survey one month later (wave 3). Analyses assessed the relationships of social media use at wave 1 with wave 3 alcohol use frequency, accounting for wave 1 alcohol use frequency and the sociodemographic characteristics of the sample. Two alcohol use change variables were also assessed as outcomes-increased and decreased alcohol use between waves. We considered the effect of work status changes (working/studying from home and job loss) as potential moderators.
Twitter and Instagram users and users of multiple social media platforms, but not Facebook users, drank more frequently at wave 3. The results were similar when assessing relationships between social media use and increased alcohol use between waves. For Instagram users, more frequent alcohol use at wave 3 was at least partially attributed to drinking frequency at wave 1. Additionally, working/studying from home at wave 3 and employment (rather than job loss) were associated with greater consumption. The interaction effect between Twitter use and working/studying from home was statistically significant in association with alcohol use frequency at wave 3, as was the interaction effect between using multiple platforms and working/studying from home in association with decreased alcohol use between waves.
Exposure to content about COVID-19 and increased alcohol consumption during the pandemic may have contributed to more frequent alcohol use for some social media users. The study of public health messaging via social media to change alcohol use behaviors during traumatic events is warranted.
本研究旨在了解在 COVID-19 大流行的早期，社交媒体使用与饮酒之间的联系。
数据来自全国性的“理解美国研究”（Understanding American Study），这是一个基于概率的互联网面板，经过加权处理以代表美国人口。研究对象（N=5874；51%为女性）为年龄在 18 岁及以上的成年人，他们完成了 3 月的调查（第 1 波），并在一个月后（第 3 波）进行了后续调查。分析评估了第 1 波社交媒体使用与第 3 波酒精使用频率之间的关系，同时考虑了第 1 波酒精使用频率和样本的社会人口统计学特征。还评估了两个酒精使用变化变量作为结果——第 1 波和第 3 波之间酒精使用频率的增加和减少。我们考虑了工作状态变化（在家工作/学习和失业）作为潜在的调节因素。
使用 Twitter 和 Instagram 的用户以及使用多种社交媒体平台的用户，而不是使用 Facebook 的用户，在第 3 波时饮酒更为频繁。在评估第 1 波和第 3 波之间社交媒体使用与增加的酒精使用之间的关系时，结果相似。对于 Instagram 用户，第 3 波时更频繁的饮酒至少部分归因于第 1 波时的饮酒频率。此外，第 3 波时在家工作/学习和就业（而非失业）与更高的饮酒量相关。第 3 波时使用 Twitter 与在家工作/学习之间的交互效应与第 3 波时的饮酒频率具有统计学意义，而使用多种平台与在家工作/学习之间的交互效应与第 3 波之间的酒精使用减少相关。
接触有关 COVID-19 的内容以及大流行期间饮酒量的增加可能导致某些社交媒体用户更频繁地饮酒。有必要研究在创伤性事件期间通过社交媒体发布公共卫生信息以改变饮酒行为。
