E-Cigarette-Related Nicotine Misinformation on Social Media
Jaime E Sidani1, Beth L Hoffman1, Jason B Colditz2
1Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Substance Use & Misuse
|January 24, 2022
Summary
Misinformation about electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) is prevalent on Twitter. Nearly half of tweets discussing ENDS nicotine and addiction contained inaccuracies, including exaggerations and false claims about addictiveness and health benefits.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Social Media Analysis
- Nicotine Research
Background:
- Twitter serves as a platform to study public perceptions of nicotine and addiction related to electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS).
- Examining social media content is crucial for understanding misinformation surrounding ENDS.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically analyze a sample of ENDS-related tweets for potential misinformation regarding nicotine and addiction.
- Identify and categorize types of misinformation present in social media discussions about ENDS.
Main Methods:
- Collected 10.1 million ENDS-related tweets from April 2018 to March 2019.
- Filtered tweets for keywords related to nicotine and addiction.
- Human-coded a subsample of 3,116 tweets to identify account type and misinformation.
Main Results:
- Of 904 tweets discussing nicotine or addiction, 41.7% contained potential misinformation.
- Misinformation categories included anti-vaping exaggeration, pro-vaping exaggeration, claims of nicotine not being addictive or harmful, and unproven health benefits.
- Anti-vaping exaggeration was the most common form of misinformation.
Conclusions:
- A significant portion of ENDS-related tweets on Twitter contain misinformation about nicotine and addiction.
- Exaggerated claims and misinterpretations of scientific findings are prevalent.
- Effective public health messaging and social media monitoring are needed to combat misinformation about ENDS.
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