Characteristics of Gun Advertisements on Social Media: Systematic Search and Content Analysis of Twitter and YouTube Posts

Addressing the global obesity burden: a gender-responsive approach to changing food environments is needed

Obesity is a leading cause of death and disability globally. There is a higher proportion of women living with obesity than men, with differences in prevalence rates between women and men particularly staggering in low- and middle-income countries. The food environments that most people live in have been defined as 'obesogenic', characterised by easy access to energy dense, highly palatable foods with poor nutritional value. There is an established need to intervene to change food environments to prevent obesity. However, minimal successes are evident with no country set to meet the WHO goal of reducing obesity prevalence to 2010 numbers by 2025. In this review, we provide a narrative around the sex (biological)- and gender (sociocultural)-related considerations for the relationship between nutrition, interactions with the food environment and obesity risk. We provide an argument that there are gendered responses to food environments that place women at a higher risk of obesity particularly in relation to food industry influences, due to gendered roles and responsibilities in relation to paid and unpaid labour, and due to specific food security threats. This review concludes with hypotheses for addressing the obesity burden in a gender-responsive manner, with a call for gender equity to be a key component of the development, implementation and monitoring of obesity prevention focused policies going forward.

Surveillance of Gun-Related Conversations on Twitter

Gun violence in the USA is a documented public health crisis. Publicly accessible data from Twitter posts can be used to rapidly capture and describe the public's recent conversations about guns. Because these gun-related conversations change rapidly, it is important to provide regularly updated information on them. Twitter posts containing gun-related terms were obtained from January 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022. To understand topics of gun-related tweets (N = 449,492), topic modeling was performed with Top2Vec. Gun ownership control, concern about gun safety and its impact on children and schools, and the Second Amendment were major areas of the gun-related discourse on Twitter. Several identified topics in this study were a consequence of the study period, including "Discourse on Capitol Riots," and "Wartime and Military Use of Guns," with the latter topic containing conversations about the Russia-Ukraine War. Conversations around the influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA) on gun policies and pro-gun ownership perspectives were also part of the public discourse. The intersection between alcohol, substance use, and gun use was infrequently observed. Findings suggest that gun-related conversations in social media such as Twitter can inform public health researchers.

Assessing Social Media Data as a Resource for Firearm Research: A Test Using Firearm Deaths (Preprint)

Background

Historic constraints on research dollars and reliable information have limited firearm research. At the same time, interest in the power and potential of social media analytics, particularly in health contexts, has surged.

Objective

The aim of this study is to contribute toward the goal of establishing a foundation for how social media data may best be used, alone or in conjunction with other data resources, to improve the information base for firearm research.

Methods

We examined the value of social media data for estimating a firearm outcome for which robust benchmark data exist—specifically, firearm mortality, which is captured in the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS). We hand curated tweet data from the Twitter application programming interface spanning January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2018. We developed machine learning classifiers to identify tweets that pertain to firearm deaths and develop estimates of the volume of Twitter firearm discussion by month. We compared within-state variation over time in the volume of tweets pertaining to firearm deaths with within-state trends in NVSS-based estimates of firearm fatalities using Pearson linear correlations.

Results

The correlation between the monthly number of firearm fatalities measured by the NVSS and the monthly volume of tweets pertaining to firearm deaths was weak (median 0.081) and highly dispersed across states (range –0.31 to 0.535). The median correlation between month-to-month changes in firearm fatalities in the NVSS and firearm deaths discussed in tweets was moderate (median 0.30) and exhibited less dispersion among states (range –0.06 to 0.69).

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that Twitter data may hold value for tracking dynamics in firearm-related outcomes, particularly for relatively populous cities that are identifiable through location mentions in tweet content. The data are likely to be particularly valuable for understanding firearm outcomes not currently measured, not measured well, or not measurable through other available means. This research provides an important building block for future work that continues to develop the usefulness of social media data for firearm research.

How Internet Contracts Impact Research: Content Analysis of Terms of Service on Consumer Product Websites

BACKGROUND

Companies use brand websites as a promotional tool to engage consumers on the web, which can increase product use. Given that some products are harmful to the health of consumers, it is important for marketing associated with these products to be subject to public health surveillance. However, terms of service (TOS) governing the use of brand website content may impede such important research.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to explore the TOS for brand websites with public health significance to assess possible legal and ethical challenges for conducting research on consumer product websites.

METHODS

Using Statista, we purposefully constructed a sample of 15 leading American tobacco, alcohol, psychiatric pharmaceutical, fast-food, and gun brands that have associated websites. We developed and implemented a structured coding system for the TOS on these websites and coded for the presence versus absence of different types of restriction that might impact the ability to conduct research.

RESULTS

All TOS stated that by accessing the website, users agreed to abide by the TOS (15/15, 100%). A total of 11 out of 15 (73%) websites had age restrictions in their TOS. All alcohol brand websites (5/15, 33%) required users to enter their age or date of birth before viewing website content. Both websites for tobacco brands (2/15, 13%) further required that users register and verify their age and identity to access any website content and agree that they use tobacco products. Only one website (1/15, 7%) allowed users to display, download, copy, distribute, and translate the website content as long as it was for personal and not commercial use. A total of 33% (5/15) of TOS unconditionally prohibited or put substantial restrictions on all of these activities and/or failed to specify if they were allowed or prohibited. Moreover, 87% (13/15) of TOS indicated that website access could be restricted at any time. A total of 73% (11/15) of websites specified that violating TOS could result in deleting user content from the website, revoking access by having the user's Internet Protocol address blocked, terminating log-in credentials, or enforcing legal action resulting in civil or criminal penalties.

CONCLUSIONS

TOS create complications for public health surveillance related to e-marketing on brand websites. Recent court opinions have reduced the risk of federal criminal charges for violating TOS on public websites, but this risk remains unclear for private websites. The public health community needs to establish standards to guide and protect researchers from the possibility of legal repercussions related to such efforts.