Open AccessCharacterizing Swisher Little Cigar–Related Posts on Twitter in 2018: Text Analysis
Author(s) -
Jon-Patrick Allem,
Sree Priyanka Uppu,
Tess Boley Cruz,
Jennifer B. Unger
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
jmir. journal of medical internet research/journal of medical internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.446
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1439-4456
pISSN - 1438-8871
DOI - 10.2196/14398
Subject(s) - popularity , social media , advertising , blunt , psychology , psychological intervention , medicine , internet privacy , computer science , business , world wide web , social psychology , surgery , psychiatry
Background Little cigars are growing in popularity in the United States, and Swisher is the market leader. The contexts and experiences associated with the use of Swisher-related products is understudied, but such information is available via publicly available posts on Twitter. Objective This study aimed to analyze Twitter posts to characterize Twitter users’ recent experiences with Swisher-related products. Methods Twitter posts containing the term “swisher” were analyzed from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2018. Text classifiers were used to identify topics in posts (n=81,333). Results The most prevalent topic was Person Tagging (mentioning a Twitter account in a post; 32.77%), followed by Flavors (eg, Grape and Strawberry; 20.96%) and Swisher use (eg, smoke swisher; 17.44%). Additional topics included Cannabis use (eg, blunt, roll, and gut swisher; 6.26%), Appeal (eg, like Swisher; 5.92%), Dislike (eg, posts that showed dissatisfaction with Swisher products; 3.53%), Purchases (eg, buy swisher; 1.90%), and Cigar comparison (eg, mentions of other cigar products including White-owl and Backwoods; 1.64%). Conclusions This paper describes common contexts and experiences associated with the use of Swisher little cigars from the population posting on Twitter in 2018. These online messages may have offline consequences for tobacco-related behaviors, indicating the need for countering from public health officials. Findings should inform us about targets for surveillance, policy, and interventions addressing Swisher little cigars as well as communication planning and tobacco product counter messaging on Twitter.