Social Media Adoption in Health Departments Nationwide: The State of the States

Web-based social media sites are increasingly being used by the public to find and share health information. Public health organizations, including state health departments (SHDs), have begun adopting social media to disseminate health information to consumers. The purpose of this study was to examine adoption patterns and characteristics associated with social media adoption in SHDs across the U.S. In early 2012, we used web searches to identify which SHDs had adopted Facebook or Twitter and the adoption date. Adoption of social media has grown steadily since 2008, with 28 SHDs using Facebook and 41 using Twitter as of February 2012. We used 2010 profile data from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials to compare characteristics of adopters and non-adopters. While there were few significant differences, trends showed that adopting SHDs tended to be in more populated states with more urban residents and higher levels of internet access than non-adopters. Adopting health departments tended to have higher per capita health department expenditures, more educated health department leadership, more staff, and younger staff than non-adopters. SHDs adopting Facebook/Twitter early may be good partners in developing and disseminating social media public health strategies. More evidence is needed regarding current and effective uses of social media for public health practice

Local health department use of Twitter to disseminate diabetes information, United States

INTRODUCTION: Diabetes may affect one-third of US adults by 2050. Adopting a healthful diet and increasing physical activity are effective in preventing type 2 diabetes and decreasing the severity of diabetes-related complications. Educating and informing the public about health problems is a service provided by local health departments (LHDs). The objective of this study was to examine how LHDs are using social media to educate and inform the public about diabetes. METHODS: In June 2012 we used NVivo 10 to collect all tweets ever posted from every LHD with a Twitter account and identified tweets about diabetes. We used a 2010 National Association of County and City Health Officials survey to compare characteristics of LHDs that tweeted about diabetes with those that did not. Content analysis was used to classify each tweet topic. RESULTS: Of 217 LHDs with Twitter accounts, 126 had ever tweeted about diabetes, with 3 diabetes tweets being the median since adopting Twitter. LHDs tweeting about diabetes were in jurisdictions with larger populations and had more staff and higher spending than LHDs not tweeting about diabetes. They were significantly more likely to employ a public information specialist and provide programs in diabetes-related areas. There was also a weak positive association between jurisdiction diabetes rate and the percentage of all tweets that were about diabetes (r = .16; P = .049). CONCLUSION: LHDs are beginning to use social media to educate and inform their constituents about diabetes. An understanding of the reach and effectiveness of social media could enable public health practitioners to use them more effectively

Point of Sale Advertising: Baseline Policy Assessment

This report provides an overview of the retail environment and point of sale advertising in a sample of St. Louis County tobacco retailers. These findings were provided to the St. Louis County Department of Health and other CPPW stakeholders, including the Leadership Team, to help inform intervention efforts for strengthening point of sale policies.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cphss/1053/thumbnail.jp

Higher Education: Baseline Policy Assessment

This report from the CPPW project presents the findings from a baseline assessment of tobacco policies in a sample of institutions of higher education in St. Louis County and City. A comprehensive evaluation plan has been developed to examine both process and outcome measures for the Communities Putting Prevention to Work grant, including changes in college/university tobacco policies.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cphss/1078/thumbnail.jp

Prevalence of cigarette advertising and other promotional strategies at the point of sale in St Louis, Missouri: Analysis by store type and distance from a school

INTRODUCTION: Point-of-sale advertising provides an opportunity for the tobacco industry to communicate with current and potential smokers. The US Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act allows states to implement policies requiring that tobacco products be placed out of sight, and the Food and Drug Administration is considering banning point-of-sale advertising within 1,000 feet of schools. Our objective was to compare cigarette point-of-sale advertising near schools with grades prekindergarten through 12 and by store type. METHODS: All registered cigarette retailers (n = 1,229) and schools (n = 581) in the city of St Louis and St Louis County were geocoded and mapped by using ArcGIS. Retailers were divided into 2 groups, those within 1,000 feet and those within 1,001 to 2,000 feet of a school; 200 retailers from each group were randomly selected. We assessed tobacco interior and exterior advertising, brands advertised, discounts, gifts with purchase, “no sales to minors” signage, and cigarette functional items (eg, advertising on shopping baskets). Analyses were done by distance from a school and store type. RESULTS: We analyzed 340 retailers. Most retailers within 1,000 feet (91.2%) and from 1,001 to 2,000 feet (94.2%) of a school displayed cigarette advertising (P = .20). Convenience stores had the highest number of interior ads. In multivariable models, distance from school explained 0.2% of the variance in total advertising. CONCLUSION: Cigarette point-of-sale advertising is highly prevalent in St Louis within 1,000 feet of schools. A ban based on distance from a school might decrease advertising exposure, but its effect on smoking prevalence is yet to be determined because advertising farther from schools would still prevail

Disparities and Menthol Marketing: Additional Evidence in Support of Point of Sale Policies

This study examined factors associated with point-of-sale tobacco marketing in St. Louis, an urban city in the United States. Using spatial analysis, descriptive statistics, and multilevel modeling, we examined point-of-sale data and the proportion of mentholated cigarette and total cigarette marketing from 342 individual tobacco retail stores within St. Louis census tracts characterized by the percent of black adults and children. Menthol and total tobacco product marketing was highest in areas with the highest percentages of black residents. When examining menthol marketing to children, we did not find as strong of a relationship, however results of multilevel modeling indicate that as the proportion of black children in a census tract increased, the proportion of menthol marketing near candy also increased. These results indicate the need for communities globally to counter this targeted marketing by taking policy action specifically through the enactment of marketing restrictions provided by the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act and the Framework Convention of Tobacco Control