A thematic analysis of Puff Bar-related content on TikTok.

Background: Puff Bar has rapidly captured a large proportion of the disposable e-cigarette market. To stay abreast of the rapidly changing e-cigarette-product landscape, researchers have turned to social media platforms to monitor e-cigarette-related discussions and marketing trends. TikTok is the latest social media platform to capture the attention of adolescents and young adults; however, e-cigarette-related research using TikTok is limited. Objectives: This study examined Puff Bar-related posts on TikTok to identify themes and user engagement. Methods: Data were collected by scraping publicly available TikTok posts that contained the hashtag #puffplus, between January 31, 2020 and May 4, 2021 (n = 581). The research team used an inductive approach to identify 19 themes from the data. User engagement with posts including the number of likes, shares, plays, and comments was also collected. Results: The most prevalent themes included Music at 75.39% (438/581), followed by Flavors at 51.64% (300/581), Youth/Young Adults at 42.86% (249/581), Tobacco Use at 41.14% (239/581), Nicotine Concentration at 35.11% (204/581), Humor at 19.45% (113/581) and Product Review at 19.1% (111/581). Cessation 1.38% (8/581) and Health Warnings 2.58% (15/581) were two themes rarely observed but commonly engaged with by TikTok users. Conclusions: Health communication strategists should prepare to address TikTok's popularity to combat its contribution to the online e-cigarette environment. Future research should determine the impact of exposure to Puff Bar-related content on TikTok on adolescents' and young adults' attitudes and behaviors.

Leading Topics in Twitter Discourse on JUUL and Puff Bar Products: Content Analysis.

BACKGROUND: In response to the recent government restrictions, flavored JUUL products, which are rechargeable closed-system electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), are no longer available for sale. However, disposable closed-system products such as the flavored Puff Bar e-cigarette continues to be available. If e-cigarette consumers simply switch between products during the current government restrictions limited to 1 type of product over another, then such restrictions would be less effective. A step forward in this line of research is to understand how the public discusses these products by examining discourse referencing both Puff Bar and JUUL in the same conversation. Twitter data provide ample opportunity to capture such early trends that could be used to help public health researchers stay abreast of the rapidly changing e-cigarette marketplace. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to examine public discourse referencing both Puff Bar and JUUL products in the same conversation on Twitter. METHODS: We collected data from Twitter's streaming application programming interface between July 16, 2019, and August 29, 2020, which included both "Puff Bar" and "JUUL" (n=2632). We then used an inductive approach to become familiar with the data and generate a codebook to identify common themes. Saturation was determined to be reached with 10 themes. RESULTS: Posts often mentioned flavors, dual use, design features, youth use, health risks, switching 1 product for the other, price, confusion over the differences between products, longevity of the products, and nicotine concentration. CONCLUSIONS: On examining the public's conversations about Puff Bar and JUUL products on Twitter, having described themes in posts, this study aimed to help the tobacco control community stay informed about 2 popular e-cigarette products with different device features, which can be potentially substituted for one another. Future health communication campaigns may consider targeting the health consequences of using multiple e-cigarette products or dual use to reduce exposure to high levels of nicotine among younger populations.

Twitter Posts About Cannabis Use During Pregnancy and Postpartum:A Content Analysis.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of cannabis use has increased among U.S. pregnant women. Given this increase, and rapidly changing cannabis policies, it may be important to harness digital data sources to help capture trends and perceptions of cannabis use during pregnancy and postpartum. The objective of this study was to examine cannabis and pregnancy-related posts on Twitter over a 12-month period. Methods: Twitter posts from December 1, 2019 to December 1, 2020 that contained pregnancy and cannabis-related keywords were collected in this study (n = 17,238). A sample of 1,000 posts proportionally sampled by week and cannabis/pregnancy-related terms were selected for coding. Posts were classified by one or more of the following themes: 1) Safety during pregnancy i.e. mentions the safety of cannabis use during pregnancy, 2) Safety postpartum i.e. mentions the safety of cannabis use postpartum, and 3) Use for pregnancy-related symptoms i.e. mentions use of cannabis to help with morning sickness, nausea, vomiting, headaches, pain, stress, and fatigue. Results: Safety during pregnancy occurred in 36.00% of the posts and 2.30% posts asked about safety during postpartum. Use of cannabis for pregnancy-related symptoms occurred in 2.70% of posts. Discussion: Findings show that conversations about the risks and benefits of cannabis use during pregnancy and postpartum take place on Twitter. These findings suggests that health practitioners should discuss the risks of cannabis use (including CBD) during pregnancy and breastfeeding with their patients. Health communication planners may need to find ways to communicate risks with the public to prevent the spread of misinformation.

Tobacco and cannabis use advertisements targeting adolescents and young adults on Snapchat in 2019.

Social media platforms offer opportunities for targeted health communication ads to improve tobacco and cannabis prevention efforts. This study described tobacco and cannabis-related ads targeted towards adolescents and young adults on Snapchat. Data comprised of publicly available tobacco (n = 70) and cannabis-related (n = 64) ads from Snapchat in 2019. Identified themes included: Health consequences (Health effects of tobacco or cannabis use), Financial & legal consequences (Adverse financial or legal implications of substance use), Quitting (Resources for cessation), Industry tactics (Tobacco industry misleads individuals), Policy advocacy (Cannabis law reforms or legalization). Ad performance metrics included average Ad Impressions (number of views per ad) and Ad Spend (cost per ad). Ads were also categorized by Sponsoring Organizations (Government or Advocacy organizations). Health Consequences was the predominant theme followed by Quitting among tobacco-related ads. Government organizations sponsored most tobacco-related ads. Tobacco-related ads targeting adolescents received mean = 4,122,071 impressions and cost mean = $10,385.6 per ad. Tobacco-related ads targeting young adults received mean = 2,151,217 impressions and cost mean = $5,382.1 per ad. Health Consequences was a predominant theme among cannabis-related ads followed by Policy Advocacy. Advocacy organizations sponsored most cannabis-related ads targeting young adults. Cannabis-related ads targeting adolescents received mean = 415,293.8 impressions and cost mean=$793.92 per ad. Cannabis-related ads targeting young adults received mean = 293,267.7 impressions, and cost mean = $740.58. Government and advocacy organization sponsored ads reached millions of adolescents and young adults on Snapchat. Prevention campaigns may consider these number of impressions and cost per ad by theme when designing platform specific ads in the future.