Tweets suggest people consumed healthier foods during the pandemic

Extra salad and apples, much less McDonald’s and KFC.

These are simply a few the dietary adjustments that individuals appeared to make through the first yr of the pandemic, in response to a brand new examine led by Boston College Faculty of Public Well being researchers.

The widespread lockdowns and restaurant closures of 2020 drastically altered each day routines and altered how folks accessed meals and alcohol, however an evaluation of tweets throughout COVID-19 counsel that some folks might have chosen to forego the baking frenzy and embrace more healthy consuming habits—relying on their neighborhood atmosphere.

Printed on-line forward of print within the Cell Press journal Patterns, the examine in contrast tweets about wholesome meals, quick meals, and alcohol earlier than and through the pandemic, and located that the share of tweets about wholesome meals elevated by 20.5 % through the pandemic, whereas the share of tweets about quick meals and alcohol decreased by 9.4 % and 11.4 %, respectively.

The findings additionally drew associations between wholesome habits and proximity to grocery shops or liquor shops amongst those that have been in a position to keep house extra throughout COVID-19; individuals who spent extra time at house and lived in neighborhoods with extra grocery shops per capita additionally tweeted extra about wholesome meals and tweeted much less about quick meals and alcohol through the pandemic than they did earlier than the pandemic. Notably, the researchers discovered that individuals residing in areas with extra liquor shops per capita have been extra more likely to tweet about alcohol.

“Our findings present perception into the influence of public well being interventions on meals and alcohol consumption through the pandemic, and reinforce the concept with regards to influencing well being behaviors, one’s constructed atmosphere issues,” says examine corresponding creator and SPH alum Mark Hernandez, an information scientist and researcher at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Share of food-related tweets about wholesome meals, quick meals, and alcohol previous to the pandemic (Might 2019 to January 2020) and through the pandemic (Might 2020 to January 2021).

For the examine, Hernandez and colleagues examined geotagged, public tweets in the US that talked about wholesome meals, quick meals, and alcohol earlier than the pandemic (Might 2019 to January 2020) and through the pandemic (Might 2020 to January 2021). The researchers linked the geotagged tweets to US counties to look at the connection between neighborhood traits and adjustments in consuming and ingesting habits, and so they obtained knowledge from Google’s COVID-19 Neighborhood Mobility Studies to grasp the place residents have been in a position to spend extra time at house.

This evaluation of tweets supplies a extra correct and real looking understanding of potential adjustments in meals consumption throughout COVID-19, filling in gaps from prior analysis which has relied totally on conventional survey knowledge that’s susceptible to biased self-reports. Social media knowledge, alternatively, present a possibility for a pure remark of voluntary details about the general public’s attitudes and behaviors.

“Twitter supplies a window into folks’s day-to-day attitudes and behaviors that surveys might wrestle to seize,” says examine co-author Nina Cesare, postdoctoral affiliate at SPH’s Biostatistics and Epidemiology Knowledge Analytics Middle (BEDAC). “Within the context of food plan, meals diaries and self-reported consuming habits are notoriously susceptible to response bias. Unsolicited studies of meals consumption on Twitter might extra precisely mirror meals preferences and habits.”

Wholesome meals tweets elevated in all 50 states and Washington, DC, aside from Massachusetts and Montana, the place tweets about wholesome meals decreased by 9.3 % and three.4 %, respectively. The most important will increase in wholesome tweets have been in Wyoming (up 62.1 %), Vermont (up 57.4 %), and Washington (up 46.5 %), whereas the biggest decreases in fast-food tweets occurred in Rhode Island (down 69.4 %) and Wyoming (down 68 %). Tweets about alcohol decreased probably the most in Alaska (down 39.7 %), Hawaii (down 38.7 %), and Vermont (down 37.6 %). The share of alcohol tweets rose in solely 6 states, with the very best enhance in South Dakota (up 30.6 %).

In addition to “salad” and “apples,” different steadily tweeted wholesome meals phrases through the pandemic included “rooster,” “corn,” “eggs,” and “peanut butter.” Along with “McDonalds” and “tequila,” frequent fast-food and alcohol phrases have been “Taco Bell,” “Starbucks,” “Chick-Fil-A,” “KFC,” “Chipotle,” “beer,” “wine,” “vodka,” and “mimosas.”

The findings spotlight the necessity for insurance policies that enhance entry to wholesome meals choices, notably in areas that lack grocery shops, the researchers say.

“Insurance policies might assist incentivize new grocers to open and inventory reasonably priced, recent meals, or give attention to investing in native meals economies and bolstering meals entry packages,” Hernandez says. “They may additionally promote situations the place important employees have extra time and assets to entry and put together wholesome meals.”

Elaine Nsoesie, examine senior creator and assistant professor of world well being at BUSPH, says these observations gleaned from the digital world and the real-world constructed atmosphere are hanging.

“Our knowledge assist the identified associations between the social determinants of well being and well being outcomes,” Nsoesie says. “These outcomes additionally reinforce the necessity to shift the narrative round well being behaviors from blaming people and communities to the insurance policies and constructions that create poor well being.”

At SPH, the examine was additionally co-authored by Shagun Modi, analysis assistant and an MPH pupil on the time of the examine; and Kanisha Mittal, statistical programmer at BEDAC and an MPH pupil on the time of the examine. Quynh Nguyen, affiliate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics on the College of Maryland Faculty of Public Well being, was additionally a co-author.