Mediterranean diet information on TikTok and implications for digital health promotion research: Social media content analysis

Authors: RABER, MARGARET - Md Anderson Cancer Center; ALLEN, HALEY - Rice University; HUANG, SOPHIA - Baylor College Of Medicine; VAZQUEZ, MARIA - Md Anderson Cancer Center; WARNER, ECHO - University Of Utah; Thompson, Deborah - Debbe

Submitted to: JMIR Formative Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/24/2024
Publication Date: 6/19/2024
Citation: Raber, M., Allen, H., Huang, S., Vazquez, M., Warner, E.L., Thompson, D.J. 2024. Mediterranean diet information on TikTok and implications for digital health promotion research: Social media content analysis. JMIR Formative Research. 8. Article e51094. https://doi.org/10.2196/51094.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2196/51094

Interpretive Summary: The Mediterranean diet has been linked to reduced risk for several cardiometabolic diseases. The lack of a clear definition of the Mediterranean diet in the scientific literature and the documented proliferation of nutrition misinformation on the internet suggest the potential for confusion among consumers seeking web-based Mediterranean diet information. Understanding the information the community locates on popular social media platforms is important for understanding how to combat misinformation. We conducted a systematic search of the platform TikTok to understand how the Mediterranean Diet was interpreted and/or addressed and who was presenting the information. While social media holds promise as a venue to promote the Mediterranean diet, the variability in information found in this study highlights the need to create clear definitions about the diet and its components when developing Mediterranean diet interventions that use new media structures.

Technical Abstract: The Mediterranean diet has been linked to reduced risk for several cardiometabolic diseases. The lack of a clear definition of the Mediterranean diet in the scientific literature and the documented proliferation of nutrition misinformation on the internet suggest the potential for confusion among consumers seeking web-based Mediterranean diet information. We conducted a social media content analysis of information about the Mediterranean diet on the influential social media platform, TikTok, to examine public discourse about the diet and identify potential areas of misinformation. We then analyzed these findings in the context of health promotion to identify potential challenges and opportunities for the use of TikTok in promoting the Mediterranean diet for healthy living. The first-appearing 202 TikTok posts that resulted from a search of the hashtag #mediterraneandiet were downloaded and qualitatively examined. Post features and characteristics, poster information, and engagement metrics were extracted and synthesized across posts. Posts were categorized as those created by health professionals and those created by nonhealth professionals based on poster-reported credentials. In addition to descriptive statistics of the entire sample, we compared posts created by professionals and nonprofessionals for content using chi-square tests. TikTok posts varied in content, but posts that were developed by health professionals versus nonprofessionals were more likely to offer a definition of the Mediterranean diet (16/106, 15.1% vs 2/96, 2.1%; P=.001), use scientific citations to support claims (26/106, 24.5% vs 0/96, 0%; P<.001), and discuss specific nutrients (33/106, 31.1% vs 6/96, 6.3%; P<.001) and diseases related to the diet (27/106, 25.5% vs 5/96, 5.2%; P<.001) compared to posts created by nonhealth professionals. Social media holds promise as a venue to promote the Mediterranean diet, but the variability in information found in this study highlights the need to create clear definitions about the diet and its components when developing Mediterranean diet interventions that use new media structures.