(P12-009-24) Recommended Dietary Behaviors for Weight Loss Frequently Reposted on X (Twitter) in English and Japanese

Objectives: This study aimed to describe recommended dietary behaviors for weight loss frequently reposted on X (Twitter) and to make a comparison between the English and Japanese posts.

Methods: We collected English and Japanese posts related to human body weight on X in July 2023 using an application programming interface (API) tool. Among them, we selected posts that recommended dietary behaviors for weight loss with over 100 reposts. Dietary behaviors were categorized by two independent researchers and compared between the English and Japanese posts using Chi-square tests.

Results: We analyzed 76 English posts and 170 Japanese posts. The median (25th and 75th percentiles) number of their reposts was 206 (131, 365) in English and 289 (159, 557) in Japanese. The proportion of posts that recommended reducing energy intake was lower in Japanese (21 posts, 12%) than in English (23 posts, 30%) (p < 0.001). Also, Japanese posts were less likely to mention meal frequencies, timing, or patterns (37 posts, 22%), compared to English posts (26 posts, 34%) (p=0.04). There were no differences in the proportion of posts that mentioned the names or brands of specific dietary products for weight loss (15% in English and 19% in Japanese, p = 0.35). The most popular dietary components recommended to increase were vegetables in both English (31 posts, 41%) and Japanese (48 posts, 28%), which were followed by protein (38%) and fruits (36%) in English and by grains/potatoes (19%) and legumes (19%) in Japanese. The most popular dietary components recommended to decrease were alcohol in English (22 posts, 29%) and sweets/confectioneries in Japanese (16 posts, 9%).

Conclusions: This study showed both similarities and differences in recommended dietary behaviors for weight loss in frequently reposted X contents between English and Japanese posts.

Funding Sources: This study was supported by a grant (#22FA1022) from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan.