Abstract
Background: Media outlets influence social attitudes toward health. Thus, it is important that they share contents which promote healthy habits. The Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) is associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk. Analysis of tweets has become a tool for understanding perceptions on health issues. Methods: We investigated tweets posted between January 2009 and December 2019 by 25 major US media outlets about MedDiet and its components as well as the retweets and likes generated. In addition, we measured the sentiment analysis of these tweets and their dissemination. Results: In total, 1608 tweets, 123,363 likes and 48,946 retweets about MedDiet or its components were analyzed. Dairy (inversely weighted in MedDiet scores) accounted for 45.0% of the tweets (723/1608), followed by nuts 19.7% (317/1608). MedDiet, as an overall dietary pattern, generated only 9.8% (157/1608) of the total tweets, while olive oil generated the least number of tweets. Twitter users’ response was quantitatively related to the number of tweets posted by these US media outlets, except for tweets on olive oil and MedDiet. None of the MedDiet components analyzed was more likely to be liked or retweeted than the MedDiet itself. Conclusions: The US media outlets analyzed showed reduced interest in MedDiet as a whole, while Twitter users showed greater interest in the overall dietary pattern than in its particular components.
Highlights
Over the last decade, access to information and news diffusion have profoundly changed [1]
We investigated all tweets posted from the Twitter accounts of the previously mentioned media outlets, filtering them according to specific criteria, using the following list of hashtags:
We found that tweets about the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) as a whole had significantly higher odds of being liked (OR = 2.04; 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.72–2.43) and retweeted (OR = 1.54; 95% CI 1.29–1.83) than dairy tweets
Summary
Access to information and news diffusion have profoundly changed [1]. The internet has modified how people find, communicate, and share information [2]. The use of the internet as a main source of nutrition information has grown rapidly [3,4]. Social media has become a popular instrument for sharing knowledge [7,8]. Media outlets influence social attitudes toward health. Analysis of tweets has become a tool for understanding perceptions on health issues. Methods: We investigated tweets posted between January 2009 and December 2019 by 25 major US media outlets about MedDiet and its components as well as the retweets and likes generated. We measured the sentiment analysis of these tweets and their dissemination. Results: In total, 1608 tweets, 123,363 likes and 48,946 retweets about MedDiet or its components were analyzed. Twitter users’ response was quantitatively related to the number of tweets posted by these
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
