Associations between State-Level Obesity Rates, Engagement with Food Brands on Social Media, and Hashtag Usage.

ABSTRACT: Food advertisement exposure is associated with increased caloric intake, but little is known about food/beverage placements in the digital media environment. We aimed to examine the correlation between the number of people who follow food and beverage brand social media accounts (i.e., user engagement) and state-level obesity rates; quantify social media followers' use of "healthy" vs. "unhealthy" hashtags; and analyze the relationship between user engagement and hashtag usage. We identified the 26 fast-food and beverage brands with the highest advertising expenditures and used Demographics Pro to determine the characteristics of social media users amongst the 26 brands. A series of regression analyses were conducted that related the mean percentage of brand followers and state-level obesi

SUBMITTER: Gu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8657578 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature