Spanish-language tobacco-related posts on Twitter: content analysis.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Twitter data has been used to surveil public sentiment about tobacco products, however, most tobacco-related Twitter research has been conducted with English-language posts. There is a gap in the literature on tobacco-related discussions on Twitter in languages other than English. This study summarized tobacco-related discussions in Spanish on Twitter. METHODS: A set of Spanish terms reflecting electronic cigarettes (e.g., cigarillos electrónicos), cigarettes (e.g., "pitillo"), and cigars (e.g., "cigaro") were identified. A content analysis of tweets (n=1,352) drawn from 2021 was performed to examine themes and sentiment. An initial codebook was developed in English then translated to Spanish and then translated back to English by a bilingual (Spanish and English) member of the research team. Two bilingual members of the research team coded the tweets into themes and sentiment. RESULTS: Themes in the tweets included 1) product promotion (n=168, 12.4%), 2) health warnings (n=161, 11.9%), 3) tobacco use (n=136, 10.1%), 4) health benefits of vaping (n=58, 4.3%), 5) cannabis use (n=50, 3.7%), 6) cessation (n=47, 3.5%), 7) addiction (n=33, 2.4%), 8) policy (n=27, 2.0%), and 9) polysubstance use (n=12, 0.9%). Neutral (n=955, 70.6%) was the most common category of sentiment observed in the data. CONCLUSIONS: Tobacco products are discussed in multiple languages on Twitter and can be summarized by bilingual research teams. Future research should determine if Spanish-speaking individuals are frequently exposed to pro-tobacco content on social media and if such exposure increases susceptibility to use tobacco among never users or sustained use among current users. IMPLICATIONS Spanish-language pro-tobacco content exists on Twitter, which has implications for Spanish-speaking individuals who may be exposed to this content. Spanish-language pro-tobacco-related posts may help normalize tobacco use among Spanish-speaking populations. As a result, anti-tobacco tweets in Spanish may be necessary to counter areas of the online environment that can be considered pro-tobacco.