Currently submitted to: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Aug 3, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Aug 4, 2026 - Sep 29, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Decoding the related comments of emerging anti obesity drugs on China social media: Assessing the association between weight‑management policy and public discourse
ABSTRACT
Background:
Obesity is a critical global public health crisis with high prevalence in China, and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) have emerged as novel weight-management agents. In 2024, China implemented official weight-management policies, making it essential to analyze public discourse about anti-obesity drugs on Chinese social media to support rational promotion and public health practice.
Objective:
This study aimed to analyze public discussions regarding emerging anti-obesity drugs on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, and to evaluate the changes in public discourse patterns following the implementation of China's 2024 weight-management policy.
Methods:
This cross-sectional study analyzed 25,733 valid Weibo posts about novel anti-obesity drugs from December 2017 to December 2025, using Latent Dirichlet allocation for topic modeling and interrupted time-series analysis to evaluate changes in public discussion trends before and after the policy.
Results:
We identified three major themes—Medication Usage Experience, Pharmaceutical Development Dynamics, and Medication Science Communication—and 11 subtopics. Most posts came from general users and focused on semaglutide. After the policy, the proportion of Medication Usage Experience discussions decreased from 11.76% to 7.10%, the proportion of Pharmaceutical Development Dynamics remained relatively stable (from 50.51% to 50.01%), while the proportion of Medication Science Communication increased from 37.73% to 42.89%. Interrupted time-series analysis further revealed that Medication Science Communication declined sharply (coefficient = −29.16; 95% CI: −41.90 to −16.42; P < .01) and then rose significantly (coefficient = 0.05; 95% CI: 0.04 to 0.07; P < .01).
Conclusions:
After policy intervention, discussion initially decreased but subsequently showed a relative increase in science-oriented content, suggesting a potential shift in public focus. These findings thus indicate public responses to obesity interventions and support scientific promotion of anti-obesity drugs and weight-management strategies.
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