Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Nov 25:9:775729.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.775729. eCollection 2021.

The Influencing Factors of Nutrition and Diet Health Knowledge Dissemination Using the WeChat Official Account in Health Promotion

Dongsheng Bian  1   2 , Yongmei Shi  1 , Wenjia Tang  3 , Dong Li  3 , Kangni Han  3 , Chenshu Shi  4 , Guohong Li  2 , Fan Zhu  3
Affiliations

The Influencing Factors of Nutrition and Diet Health Knowledge Dissemination Using the WeChat Official Account in Health Promotion

Dongsheng Bian et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: The promotion of a healthy diet via health education is a component of the "Healthy China 2030" plan. However, few studies have reported whether health knowledge about nutrition and diet has gained public attention, and whether it is needed by the public. Methods: The numbers of views, shares, and reads of articles published by the official WeChat account of a hospital in China were accessed. The influence index was obtained via the entropy analysis of these three indices. A questionnaire survey was developed based on the purpose of the study and the conclusion of the content analysis, which conducted to analyze users' requirements for health knowledge and their influencing factors. Moreover, risk factors were explored by logistic regression models. Results: Of the 103 articles considered in this study, four articles in the Top 10 were related to nutrition and diet. The influence index of nutrition and diet knowledge was found to be the highest in the content analysis (p < 0.05). The higher degrees of humor (β = 0.224, p = 0.027), nutrition and diet articles (β = 0.776, p = 0.034), and cover articles (β = 0.312, p = 0.021) have significant influences on the influence index. In total, 581 questionnaires were obtained, and 78.1% of the respondents reported believing that the health knowledge of greatest concern was that related to nutrition and diet. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to explore the associations between the features of the articles and users reading nutrition and diet knowledge; it was found that gender (female, OR: 4.651, 95%Cl: 2.598, 8.325, and p < 0.001), age (young adult, OR: 0.358, 95%Cl: 0.266, 0.481, and p < 0.001), cancer precaution knowledge (OR: 4.333, 95%Cl: 2.262, 8.299, and p < 0.001), traditional Chinese medicine (OR: 2.121, 95%Cl: 1.064, 4.230, and p = 0.033), the knowledge acquisition approach [circle of friends (OR: 2.586, 95%Cl: 1.373, 4.868, and p = 0.003), social media (OR: 2.183, 95%Cl: 1.204, 3.960, and p = 0.010)), hospitals (OR: 3.194, 95%Cl: 1.793, 5.692, and p < 0.001), television media (OR: 4.348, 95%Cl: 2.341, 8.077, and p < 0.001)], and social media strategies [professionalism and authority (OR: 2.354, 95%Cl: 1.231, 4.505, and p = 0.006)] have statistically significant relationships with users reading nutrition and diet knowledge. Conclusion: Nutrition and diet knowledge could contribute to WeChat user engagement of health information dissemination. Nutrition professionals should improve the scientific popularization ability and effectively use social media for health promotion.

Keywords: Healthy China; WeChat; health promotion; nutrition and diet; social media.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A screenshot of a counter-rumor article. Source: Shanghai Ruijin Hospital WOA; online: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Ltizmq1x6plwvSacAjjbYw (accessed August 21, 2020).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Steps of influence index calculation.
Figure 3
Figure 3
What type of health knowledge are you most concerned?
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Wang L, Zhou B, Zhao Z, Yang L, Zhang M, Jiang Y, et al. . Body-mass index and obesity in urban and rural China: findings from consecutive nationally representative surveys during 2004-18. Lancet. (2021) 398:53–63. 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00798-4 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Li Y, Wang DD, Ley SH, Vasanti M, Howard AG, He Y, et al. . Time trends of dietary and lifestyle factors and their potential impact on diabetes burden in China. Diabetes Care. (2017) 40:1685–94. 10.2337/dc17-0571 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Huang L, Wang Z, Wang H, Zhao L, Jiang H, Zhang B, et al. . Nutrition transition and related health challenges over decades in China. Eur J Clin Nutr. (2021) 75:247–52. 10.1038/s41430-020-0674-8 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Han A, Sun T, Ming J, Chai L, Liao X. Are the Chinese moving toward a healthy diet? Evidence from Macro Data from 1961 to 2017. Int J Environ Res Public Health. (2020) 17:5294. 10.3390/ijerph17155294 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cao Y, Chai L, Yan X, Liang Y. Drivers of the growing water, carbon and ecological footprints of the Chinese diet from 1961 to 2017. Int J Environ Res Public Health. (2020) 17:1803. 10.3390/ijerph17051803 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources