The Role of Social Media Use Among Young Adults as it Relates to Fruits and Vegetables Intake and a Content Analysis of Fruits and Vegetables Videos on YouTube and TikTok

Abstract

Young adults have low fruits and vegetables intake, high use of social media, including YouTube and TikTok, and rely on social media to obtain nutrition information, which may affect food intake. This study examined the quality and reliability of fruits and vegetables videos on YouTube and TikTok using content analysis. A cross-sectional survey was also administered to young adults to examine the association between Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) constructs, including nutrition knowledge, social support, outcome expectation, reciprocal determinism, self-efficacy, and social media use on fruits and vegetables intake. Gender differences were also examined. The study analyzed 50 popular videos from YouTube and TikTok. Half of the YouTube videos were of good quality and reliability. Nearly half of TikTok videos were of moderate quality and poor reliability. Nutrition knowledge videos had the highest quality and reliability scores, 5 and 4, respectively. Online health organizations had minimal participation on YouTube. On TikTok, there were no nutrition knowledge videos, no videos from health organizations, and limited videos created by healthcare professionals. The study also included surveys with 275 young adults aged (18-30). Survey findings showed that higher reciprocal determinism, outcome expectations, and social support were correlated with higher self-efficacy to eat more fruits and vegetables (beta=.134, p=.052), (beta=.134, p=.022), and (beta=.421, p=<.001), respectively. Higher social media use was found to have an inverse relationship with self-efficacy to eat fruits and vegetables (beta=-.140, p=.010). Higher nutrition knowledge, self-efficacy, and social support were correlated with a higher daily intake of fruits and vegetables (beta=.149, p=.017), (beta=.269, p=<.001), and (beta=.287, p=.001), respectively. However, higher social media use was not correlated with a higher daily intake of fruits and vegetables (beta=.089, p=.157). There were no gender differences in social media use, self-efficacy, or total fruits and vegetables intake. Young adults' self-efficacy to consume fruits and vegetables may be negatively impacted by exposure to low-quality food content, like what was found on TikTok. These results may also indicate that social media use could be a useful nutrition education tool. Improved SCT constructs may assist young adults in enhancing their daily fruits and vegetables intake and self-efficacy. Further research is needed.