| Literature DB >> 27443643 |
Christine N May1,2, Molly E Waring3,4, Stephanie Rodrigues5, Jessica L Oleski6, Effie Olendzki6, Martinus Evans6, Jennifer Carey7, Sherry L Pagoto6.
Abstract
People seek weight loss support on online social networks, but little is known about how to build a supportive community. We created four Twitter accounts portraying women interested in weight loss (two obese, two normal weight/overweight) and followed health care professional and peer accounts for 2-5 weeks. We examined follow back rates, interactions, and organic follows from professionals and peers by weight status. Follow back rates did not differ by weight status when following professionals (6.8 % normal weight/overweight vs 11.0 % for obese; p = 0.4167) or peers (6.7 % for normal weight/overweight vs 10.8 % for obese; p = 0.1548). Number of interactions and organic followers also did not differ by weight status. Peers interacted with study accounts significantly more than professionals (p = 0.0138), but interactions were infrequent. Women seeking weight loss support on Twitter may need to be present for more than 5 weeks to build an interactive weight loss community.Entities:
Keywords: Obesity; Peer-to-peer healthcare; Social media; Twitter
Mesh：
Year: 2017 PMID： 27443643 PMCID： PMC5352642 DOI： 10.1007/s13142-016-0429-1
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Transl Behav Med ISSN： 1613-9860 Impact factor: 3.046