By analyzing tweets (now called they convey negative feelings about overweight and obesity. The positions taken by influential political figures and celebrities play an important role in shaping public opinion on the subject. The study points out the discrimination suffered by overweight or obese people and the role of social networks in the propagation of criticism. Understanding public attitudes and perceptions toward obesity is critical to developing effective public health policies, prevention strategies, and treatment approaches. A study to read in Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Obesity is a chronic disease that affects people of all ages worldwide and is directly associated with multiple comorbidities, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular, respiratory and digestive diseases, as well as cancers. Obesity also causes significant psychological suffering. Its prevalence increased from 4.6% in 1980 to 16% of the world population in 20221 with an upward trend.
Nearly 7 out of 10 tweets are critical
The study was conducted by Dr. Jorge César Correia, clinical director at the HUG Therapeutic Patient Education Unit, under the supervision of Professor Zoltan Pataky, associate physician, head of the Education Unit. therapy of the HUG patient and associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine of UNIGE. It was carried out in collaboration with researchers from the Universities of Liverpool and the NHS Greater Manchester Mental Health Foundation.
It examines the feelings of the general public, politicians, celebrities and major organizations regarding obesity using 53,414 tweets published in English, on this theme, between April 2019 and December 2022, in the midst of the pandemic. Covid-19. Analysis of these tweets revealed that they were mostly negative (69.36%) and increasing, while neutral (20.91%) and positive (9.73%) were stable.
Obesity-related tweets were also very often associated with racism, alternative lifestyle choices and social ills, such as the use of illicit substances and alcohol.
The study demonstrates that negative portrayals of obesity by politicians and celebrities contribute to negative public feelings and the perpetuation of stereotypes and prejudice against obese and overweight people. This stigma can have consequences on the mental health and well-being of these people, but also have harmful effects on public health.
The role of celebrities and influencers
The researchers found that spikes in criticism were correlated with political events and celebrity comments in the United States and Britain. Thus, many negative messages were broadcast when famous overweight people were hospitalized for Covid-19, when the President of the United States announced that he wanted to lose weight or during the launch of a British Government campaign against obesity.
The study finds that when well-known people post negative comments or opinions about obesity, followers are more likely to engage in similar conversations, further perpetuating the negativity. It therefore demonstrates the role of influencers in shaping public opinion on health topics and underlines that public figures should be aware of the potential consequences of their statements in terms of public health.
The impact of social media on public health messages
The results of this study provide a better understanding of the role of social media in shaping the public’s feelings, attitudes and health behaviors, on various themes, in this case obesity.
They could be useful when developing public health policies, prevention strategies and therapeutic approaches. They must now take into account the unique challenges that social media and digital communication pose in terms of public health.
A combination of human analysis and artificial intelligence
The scientific team performed algorithmic and manual analysis for an in-depth understanding of widespread attitudes and perceptions regarding obesity on Twitter. It used an artificial intelligence-based text classification platform refined on approximately 198 million tweets for various applications, including sentiment analysis in eight different languages.
DOI: doi:10.2196/52142
1. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight
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