Social Bots for Online Public Health Interventions

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in the United States hundreds of thousands initiate smoking each year, and millions live with smoking-related dis- eases. Many tobacco users discuss their habits and preferences on social media. This work conceptualizes a framework for targeted health interventions to inform tobacco users about the consequences of tobacco use. We designed a Twitter bot named Notobot (short for No-Tobacco Bot) that leverages machine learning to identify users posting pro-tobacco tweets and select individualized interventions to address their interest in tobacco use. We searched the Twitter feed for tobacco-related keywords and phrases, and trained a convolutional neural network using over 4,000 tweets dichotomously manually labeled as either pro- tobacco or not pro-tobacco. This model achieves a 90% recall rate on the training set and 74% on test data. Users posting pro- tobacco tweets are matched with former smokers with similar interests who posted anti-tobacco tweets. Algorithmic matching, based on the power of peer influence, allows for the systematic delivery of personalized interventions based on real anti-tobacco tweets from former smokers. Experimental evaluation suggests that our system would perform well if deployed. This research offers opportunities for public health researchers to increase health awareness at scale. Future work entails deploying the fully operational Notobot system in a controlled experiment within a public health campaign

Youth Vaping: An Analysis of an Epidemic

Youth use of e-cigarettes has reached epidemic proportions. In 2019, 5.4 million youth and young adults were current e-cigarette users. This represents 27.5% of high school youth and 10.5% of middle school youth reporting current e-cigarette use. Comparatively, only 3.2% of US adults were current e-cigarette users in 2018. Many factors have contributed to the rise in prevalence of youth vaping, including: marketing tactics employed by e-cigarette companies; e-cigarette product design; and the generational values of youth and young adults themselves. In this paper, these specific factors are addressed and their influence on the youth vaping epidemic is explored. The Social Cognitive Theory is used as a theoretical framework to elaborate on the relationship between youth tobacco use and social constructs. Current data are presented on e-cigarette use and used to inform recommendations to combat rising youth and young adult prevalence rates. Findings suggest that national tobacco prevention and education campaigns are successful in changing tobacco use attitudes and behavior among youth and young adults. Campaigns should address deceitful tobacco company marketing tactics that have misguided the public as well as the technological appeal of e-cigarettes. Additionally, policies that address flavors and restrict use of e-cigarettes in schools and other locations are also discussed

Messaging for change: investigating effective communication strategies to promote youth vaping cessation on social media

This dissertation comprises three studies with the overarching goal of investigating effective messaging strategies to encourage e-cigarette cessation among youth who use e-cigarettes. Study one employs the McGuire’s Communication/ Persuasion model to identify research gaps in the literature on health messages targeting youth e-cigarette use. The systematic review reveals a lack of research specifically targeting vaping cessation among youth who currently use e-cigarettes. As a result, the subsequent studies in this dissertation focus on youth vaping cessation to address this research gap. Study two presents a content analysis of existing vaping-cessation related TikTok videos. The findings of study 2 suggest that themes pertaining to physical health outcomes, nicotine addiction, harmful chemicals, and relatable message sources were associated with higher engagement, underscoring the importance of tailored messaging content and relatable sources to engage the young audience on TikTok. Study 3 consists of an experimental study that specifically examines the effects of message frames (gain vs. loss) and two types of expert message sources (formal vs. informal expert sources) on youth intention to quit vaping. The study found that TikTok videos employing gain-framed messages hold promise in promoting positive emotional responses and, consequently, intention to quit vaping among youth. Lastly, chapter 5 provides a summary of the findings within this dissertation, offering insights into future research directions and proposing practical implications derived from the three studies

The American Academy of Health Behavior 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting: Transforming the narrative to meet emerging health behavior challenges

The American Academy of Health Behavior (AAHB) anticipated hosting it\u27s 20th Annual Scientific Meeting at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in Napa Valley, CA June 28-July 1, 2020. The meeting\u27s theme was Transforming the narrative to meet emerging health behavior challenges. This publication includes the refereed abstracts that were accepted for presentation at the 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting, prior to the meeting\u27s cancellation

Smoking and health 2021: A coming of age for tobacco control?

Smoking and health 2021 says that while the reduction in smoking prevalence by 75% since 1962 has been considered a national success, if the policies advocated by the RCP in 1962 had been adopted and followed through, smoking would have been eradicated from the UK years ago. Instead, modelling of current tobacco control policies shows a failure to achieve a smoking prevalence of <5% until after 2050. ‘Too many UK generations have been blighted by addiction to tobacco. To ensure that those born today live their lives tobacco-free, we must take the necessary steps to make smoking obsolete. In a historic time of medicine showing it can solve the health crises that come its way, this is our opportunity to make smoking and tobacco addiction history.’ Andrew Goddard President, Royal College of Physicians Written by expert contributors and approved by RCP Council, this 150-page report provides a comprehensive account of all aspects of tobacco use in the UK today in ten chapters, from the effects of tobacco control measures across time, through the effects of tobacco promotion and tobacco company lobbying, to the economics and ethics of tobacco smoking. Each chapter carries recommendations which are brought together in the executive summary, available as a separate document below. The report underlines the need to take action in all of the ten areas featured. The action we take now has to be thoroughly comprehensive, not piecemeal as in the past. Health measures are not enough on their own, and the report contains recommendations on reforming tax policy, eradicating media promotion of smoking, prioritising the treatment of tobacco dependency, realising the potential of comprehensive public health campaigns to promote quitting, raising the legal age of sale for tobacco products, and silencing the voice of the tobacco industry. ‘Tobacco smoking is a blight on health and society. The ill health, premature death and financial toll caused by tobacco use touches all communities in the UK, and is typically concentrated in the most disadvantaged and vulnerable in our society. To ensure that those born today live their lives tobacco-free we must take the necessary steps to make smoking obsolete.’ Sanjay Agrawal Chair of RCP Tobacco Advisory Group and Professor of Respiratory Medicine, University of Leiceste