Whose tweets about obesity and weight loss gain the most attention: celebrities, political, or medical authorities?
Authors' conclusion
Tweets concerning obesity and weight loss originating from accounts representing health institutions garnered fewer likes and retweets compared to other types of accounts, including non-medical ones. A limitation of the study is the relatively small number of tweets emanating from non-medical accounts. A X informational campaign about obesity should engage non-medical accounts with many followers to reach as many users as possible.
Study context
- Population
- Tweets about obesity, overweight, BMI and weight loss from 2444 X profiles in seven account categoriestweets from 2444 profiles
- Participants
- 8,989 participants
- Exposure
- Tweets about obesity and weight loss by account category
- Outcome
- Likes and retweets (quantile regression, taus 0.7–0.9 for likes)
Methodological detailssentiment analysis, multivariable quantile regression
- Sentiment analysis
- Multivariable quantile regression
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- Large number of likes positively associated with tweets by celebrities, politicians, medical journals and universities; negatively with health institutions or medical specialists
- Significant number of retweets positively associated with all account types except health institutions (negative)
- Independent of verification status, number of followers, tweet length and sentiment
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Original publication
Whose tweets about obesity and weight loss gain the most attention: celebrities, political, or medical authorities? Int J Obes (Lond). Published 26 November 2024. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →