Montoya Alana, Mao Lingchao, Drewnowski Adam, Chen Joshua, Shi Ella, Liang Aileen, Weiner Bryan J, Su Yanfang
Information School, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.
School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, United States.
J Med Internet Res. 2024 Dec 30;26:e54506. doi: 10.2196/54506.
Excessive sodium intake is a major concern for global public health. Despite multiple dietary guidelines, population sodium intakes are above recommended levels. Lack of health literacy could be one contributing issue and contemporary health literacy is largely shaped by social media.
This study aims to quantify the posting behaviors and influence patterns on dietary sodium-related content by influencers in the policy field on X (formerly Twitter) across time.
We first identified X users with a scope of work related to dietary sodium and retrieved their posts (formerly Tweets) from 2006 to 2022. Users were categorized into the policy groups of outer-setting organization, inner-setting organization, or individual, based on their role in the conceptual policy field. Network analysis was used to analyze interactions among users and identify the top influencers in each policy group. A 4D influence framework was applied to measure the overall influence, activity, priority, originality, and popularity scores. These measures were used to reveal the user-level, group-level, and temporal patterns of sodium-related influence.
We identified 78 users with content related to dietary sodium, with 1,099,605 posts in total and 14,732 dietary sodium posts. There was an increasing volume of sodium posts from 2010 to 2015; however, the trend has been decreasing since 2016, especially among outer-setting organizations. The top influencers from the three policy groups were the World Health Organization (WHO), the American Heart Association, and Tom Frieden. Simon Capewell and the WHO ranked the highest in activity; the World Action on Salt, Sugar, and Health and Action on Salt had the highest priority for dietary sodium content; General Mills and Tom Frieden had the highest originality; and WHO, Harvard University School of Medicine, and Tom Frieden received the highest popularity. Outer-setting organizations tend to interact with more users in the network compared to inner-setting organizations and individuals, while inner-setting organizations tend to receive more engagements from other users in the network than the other two groups. Monthly patterns showed a significant peak in the number of sodium posts in March compared with other months.
Despite the increased use of social media, recent trends of sodium intake education on social media are decreasing and the priority of sodium among other topics is low. To improve policy implementation effectiveness and meet recommended dietary targets, there is an increasing need for health leaders to consistently and collectively advocate for sodium intake reduction on social media.
钠摄入过量是全球公共卫生的一个主要问题。尽管有多项饮食指南，但人群钠摄入量仍高于推荐水平。健康素养的缺乏可能是一个促成因素，而当代健康素养在很大程度上受到社交媒体的影响。
本研究旨在量化政策领域有影响力的人在X平台（原推特）上随时间推移发布的与饮食钠相关内容的行为及影响模式。
我们首先确定了工作范围与饮食钠相关的X用户，并检索了他们在2006年至2022年期间发布的帖子（原推文）。根据用户在概念性政策领域中的角色，将其分为外部环境组织、内部环境组织或个人等政策组。采用网络分析来分析用户之间的互动，并确定每个政策组中的顶级有影响力的人。应用一个四维影响框架来衡量总体影响力、活跃度、优先级、原创性和受欢迎程度得分。这些指标用于揭示与钠相关影响的用户层面、群体层面和时间模式。
我们确定了78名发布与饮食钠相关内容的用户，总共发布了1,099,605条帖子，其中14,732条是与饮食钠相关的帖子。2010年至2015年期间，钠相关帖子数量呈上升趋势；然而，自2016年以来该趋势一直在下降，尤其是在外部环境组织中。三个政策组中的顶级有影响力的人分别是世界卫生组织（WHO）、美国心脏协会和汤姆·弗里登。西蒙·卡普韦尔和世界卫生组织在活跃度方面排名最高；盐、糖与健康世界行动组织和减盐行动组织在饮食钠含量方面具有最高优先级；通用磨坊公司和汤姆·弗里登具有最高原创性；世界卫生组织、哈佛大学医学院和汤姆·弗里登获得的人气最高。与内部环境组织和个人相比，外部环境组织在网络中倾向于与更多用户互动，而内部环境组织在网络中往往比其他两组获得更多其他用户的参与度。月度模式显示，与其他月份相比，3月份钠相关帖子数量有一个显著峰值。
尽管社交媒体的使用有所增加，但社交媒体上近期饮食钠摄入教育的趋势正在下降，并且钠在其他话题中的优先级较低。为提高政策实施效果并达到推荐的饮食目标，健康领域的领导者越来越需要在社交媒体上持续且共同倡导减少钠摄入。
