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Influence of Flavors on the Propagation of E-Cigarette-Related Information: Social Media Study
Jiaqi Zhou1, Qingpeng Zhang1,2, Daniel Dajun Zeng3,4
1Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, China (Hong Kong).
Background:
Modeling the influence of e-cigarette flavors on information propagation could provide quantitative policy decision support concerning smoking initiation and contagion, as well as e-cigarette regulations.
Objective:
The objective of this study was to characterize the influence of flavors on e-cigarette-related information propagation on social media.
Methods:
We collected a comprehensive dataset of e-cigarette-related discussions from public Pages on Facebook. We identified 11 categories of flavors based on commonly used categorizations. Each post's frequency of being shared served as a proxy measure of information propagation. We evaluated a set of regression models and chose the hurdle negative binomial model to characterize the influence of different flavors and nonflavor control variables on e-cigarette-related information propagation.
Results:
We found that 5 flavors (sweet, dessert & bakery, fruits, herbs & spices, and tobacco) had significantly negative influences on e-cigarette-related information propagation, indicating the users' tendency not to share posts related to these flavors. We did not find a positive significance of any flavors, which is contradictory to previous research. In addition, we found that a set of nonflavor-related factors were associated with information propagation.
Conclusions:
Mentions of flavors in posts did not enhance the popularity of e-cigarette-related information. Certain flavors could even have reduced the popularity of information, indicating users' lack of interest in flavors. Promoting e-cigarette-related information with mention of flavors is not an effective marketing approach. This study implies the potential concern of users about flavorings and suggests a need to regulate the use of flavorings in e-cigarettes.
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