Previously submitted to: JMIR AI (no longer under consideration since Sep 20, 2024)
Date Submitted: Jul 18, 2023
Open Peer Review Period: Apr 17, 2023 - Jun 12, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Most Important Topics Related to Physical Activity: Let’s see what people across the (English speaking) world are talking about.
ABSTRACT
Background:
Physical activity is implicated in preventing many chronic diseases. However, studies show, that the recommendations of the WHO regarding physical activity are rarely met. Many different theories to promote physical activity are applied globally. Most of these theories are based on expert opinion or results from clinical or experiment settings. The application of said theories has limited success however. This raises the question, whether these theories actually reflect what the general population deems important.
Objective:
To investigate popular online topics or themes related to physical activity by analyzing search queries and social media discussions. Furthermore, we provide a large dataset of 4 million tweets and an extensive machine learning toolbox for exploratory research adaptable to any research question.
Methods:
We collected data on the most searched topics regarding "physical activity" in Google searches worldwide over the past 15 years, and conversations in the complete Twitter repository from April 1st, 2006 (Twitter's launch) to April 1st, 2023. To analyze the Twitter data, we utilized deep learning natural language processing techniques. Searches and analyses were performed in 2023 at the University of Bern, Switzerland.
Results:
The most frequently searched topics on Google related to "physical activity" include its definition, as well as health, fitness, and benefits. Among the most mentioned positive terms are "health," "sport," and "exercise," which were mentioned twice as often as negative context mentions. Twitter data sorted by sentiment shows clear patterns emerging in word frequencies regarding motivation for, and problems connected to, physical activity.
Conclusions:
People across the English-speaking world are primarily interested in understanding what "physical activity" entails. Therefore, we recommend that policymakers and professionals in the field prioritize providing clear and straightforward definitions and guidelines for the general population. Additionally, we encourage the use of real-world data to inform the modeling of physical activity patterns and behaviors. This approach can better align with the interests and needs of the general population, as reflected in their online search and discussion behaviors.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.