Pollack Catherine, Gilbert-Diamond Diane, Onega Tracy, Vosoughi Soroush, O'Malley A James, Emond Jennifer A
Department of Biomedical Data Science, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, NH, United States.
Department of Epidemiology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, United States.
JMIR Infodemiology. 2023 May 16;3:e40005. doi: 10.2196/40005.
COVID-19 severity is amplified among individuals with obesity, which may have influenced mainstream media coverage of the disease by both improving understanding of the condition and increasing weight-related stigma.
We aimed to measure obesity-related conversations on Facebook and Instagram around key dates during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Public Facebook and Instagram posts were extracted for 29-day windows in 2020 around January 28 (the first US COVID-19 case), March 11 (when COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic), May 19 (when obesity and COVID-19 were linked in mainstream media), and October 2 (when former US president Trump contracted COVID-19 and obesity was mentioned most frequently in the mainstream media). Trends in daily posts and corresponding interactions were evaluated using interrupted time series. The 10 most frequent obesity-related topics on each platform were also examined.
On Facebook, there was a temporary increase in 2020 in obesity-related posts and interactions on May 19 (posts +405, 95% CI 166 to 645; interactions +294,930, 95% CI 125,986 to 463,874) and October 2 (posts +639, 95% CI 359 to 883; interactions +182,814, 95% CI 160,524 to 205,105). On Instagram, there were temporary increases in 2020 only in interactions on May 19 (+226,017, 95% CI 107,323 to 344,708) and October 2 (+156,974, 95% CI 89,757 to 224,192). Similar trends were not observed in controls. Five of the most frequent topics overlapped (COVID-19, bariatric surgery, weight loss stories, pediatric obesity, and sleep); additional topics specific to each platform included diet fads, food groups, and clickbait.
Social media conversations surged in response to obesity-related public health news. Conversations contained both clinical and commercial content of possibly dubious accuracy. Our findings support the idea that major public health announcements may coincide with the spread of health-related content (truthful or otherwise) on social media.
肥胖个体感染新冠病毒后的病情更为严重，这可能通过增进对该疾病的了解以及加剧与体重相关的污名化，影响了主流媒体对该疾病的报道。
我们旨在衡量新冠疫情第一年关键日期前后脸书和照片墙（Instagram）上与肥胖相关的讨论。
提取了2020年围绕1月28日（美国首例新冠病例）、3月11日（新冠被宣布为全球大流行）、5月19日（肥胖与新冠在主流媒体中被联系起来）和10月2日（美国前总统特朗普感染新冠，肥胖在主流媒体中被提及最频繁）这几个时间点的29天窗口内的脸书和照片墙公开帖子。使用中断时间序列评估每日帖子及相应互动的趋势。还研究了每个平台上最常出现的10个与肥胖相关的话题。
在脸书上，2020年5月19日与肥胖相关的帖子和互动出现了暂时增加（帖子增加405条，95%置信区间为166至645条；互动增加294,930次，95%置信区间为125,986至463,874次），10月2日也出现了类似情况（帖子增加639条，95%置信区间为359至883条；互动增加182,814次，95%置信区间为160,524至205,105次）。在照片墙上，2020年仅在5月19日的互动（增加226,017次，95%置信区间为107,323至344,708次）和10月2日（增加156,974次，95%置信区间为89,757至224,192次）出现了暂时增加。在对照组中未观察到类似趋势。最常出现的五个话题有重叠（新冠、减肥手术、减肥故事、儿童肥胖和睡眠）；每个平台特有的其他话题包括饮食潮流、食物类别和标题党。
社交媒体上的讨论因与肥胖相关的公共卫生新闻而激增。讨论内容包含准确性可能存疑的临床和商业信息。我们的研究结果支持这样一种观点，即重大公共卫生公告可能与健康相关内容（无论真假）在社交媒体上的传播同时发生。
