Role of the Built and Online Social Environments on Expression of Dining on Instagram

Abstract

Online social communities are becoming windows for learning more about the health of populations, through information about our health-related behaviors and outcomes from daily life. At the same time, just as public health data and theory has shown that aspects of the built environment can affect our health-related behaviors and outcomes, it is also possible that online social environments (e.g., posts and other attributes of our online social networks) can also shape facets of our life. Given the important role of the online environment in public health research and implications, factors which contribute to the generation of such data must be well understood. Here we study the role of the built and online social environments in the expression of dining on Instagram in Abu Dhabi; a ubiquitous social media platform, city with a vibrant dining culture, and a topic (food posts) which has been studied in relation to public health outcomes. Our study uses available data on user Instagram profiles and their Instagram networks, as well as the local food environment measured through the dining types (e.g., casual dining restaurants, food court restaurants, lounges etc.) by neighborhood. We find evidence that factors of the online social environment (profiles that post about dining versus profiles that do not post about dining) have different influences on the relationship between a user’s built environment and the social dining expression, with effects also varying by dining types in the environment and time of day. We examine the mechanism of the relationships via moderation and mediation analyses. Overall, this study provides evidence that the interplay of online and built environments depend on attributes of said environments and can also vary by time of day. We discuss implications of this synergy for precisely-targeting public health interventions, as well as on using online data for public health research.

Exploring the Social Media on the Communication Professionals in Public Health. Spanish Official Medical Colleges Case Study

“…Nowadays, social media such as blogs, websites or social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. are increasingly used by the population to acquire health knowledge [ 30 ].…”

Machine learning and algorithmic fairness in public and population health

“…The nature of this data can help evade recall or information biases associated with traditional surveys. The often-linked geographic information and time stamps further enable the capture of hyper-local, daily and sub-daily health-related information from behaviours to exposures and other macro-level properties, as well as health outcomes 23,24 . Accordingly, such ubiquitous technologies can provide opportunities to better measure the social determinants of health in a targeted way, by person, location and/or time [21][22][23][24][25] .…”

“…The often-linked geographic information and time stamps further enable the capture of hyper-local, daily and sub-daily health-related information from behaviours to exposures and other macro-level properties, as well as health outcomes 23,24 . Accordingly, such ubiquitous technologies can provide opportunities to better measure the social determinants of health in a targeted way, by person, location and/or time [21][22][23][24][25] . These attributes of person-generated data can complement denominator-based survey and report data that are not available at such high granularity.…”

“…Accordingly, it is important to understand the factors that lead to the data being contributed; developing algorithms on data in a new context can result in biased results if the mechanisms by which the algorithm worked in the original population are not well understood. For example, in one location people may tend to share more information due to different social norms 23 .…”

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“…Exploring college-aged women's Facebook use and eating disorders, Walker et al found that Facebook intensity, online physical appearance comparison and online "fat talk" is positively associated with eating behaviors [23]. Mhasawade et al studied the role of the built and online social environments in the expression of dining on Instagram [24]. Merchant et al delivered weight loss intervention content through Facebook to college students with the help of a health coach, but whether the health behavior changed is unknown [25].…”