Exploring social media campaigns against sugar-sweetened beverage consumption: A systematic search

Abstract

Significant evidence has supported a positive association between consumption of sugar-sweetened beverage and increased risks of the non-communicable diseases of obesity, metabolic disorders, dental caries, and dental erosion. Thus, using social marketing concepts to change people’s attitude and behaviour towards the consumption is imperative. Social media is considered as a cheap and quick tool to disseminate health messages in health communication. The use of social media has increased significantly but knowledge of its utilization in sugar-sweetened beverage health campaigns is limited. This study was conducted to identify social media health campaigns against the sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, their social media platforms and types of materials distributed, and to identify health messages being highlighted in the campaigns. The authors conducted a systematic search for the campaigns and employed content analysis to identify health messages. As a result, 34 campaigns were identified. Facebook and YouTube were commonly used to disseminate campaign materials—83% of them were videos and text articles. Obesity/overweight, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases were the most frequently mentioned health messages in the campaigns. The increased use of social media with their low-cost operation and capacity to increase campaign reach makes them potential communication channels for health campaigns against sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.

Keywords

• sugar-sweetened beverages
• health communication
• social marketing
• social media campaigns