The document analyzes Instagram posts containing the hashtag #HealthyKids to identify common topics. Through natural language processing and qualitative analysis, several key themes emerged, including references to specific foods, food qualities, eating occasions, and family. Notably, words related to weight status like overweight and obese did not appear. The prevalence of first-person statements suggests childhood obesity interventions should take an individualized approach to increase personal relevance for caregivers.

1. #HealthyKids on Instagram: Posts reflect interest in food, family,
and personal experience, not children’s weight status
Allison Doub Hepworth, MS1, Meg Small, PhD1, Leann Birch, PhD2, and Timothy R. Brick, PhD1
1Penn State University 2University of Georgia
Background Methods Results
Conclusions
Research Question
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DGE1255832 and from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2011-67001-30117
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Interventions for the prevention and
treatment of childhood obesity are likely
to be more engaging and effective
when they address existing interests and
concerns among caregivers.1
For example, focusing on parenting
responsibilities such as sleep and
soothing2 or ideological movements
such as global warming, anti-
consumerism, and social justice.3
Social media is a large-scale, naturalistic
setting to observe the topics caregivers
associate with healthy child
development, which could inform the
content and recruitment strategies for
childhood obesity interventions.4
The current study used natural language
processing and qualitative content
analysis to identify topics associated
with the broad concept of
‘healthy kids’ on Instagram.
Data collection
#HealthyKids emerged as a commonly
used hashtag during a larger study of
child feeding on Instagram.
All Instagram posts (English, USA) that
included the hashtag #HealthyKids were
collected using PulsarTrac over a 15-day
period: 11/26 – 12/11/2015.
Analyses
Text data from image captions were pre-
processed to remove punctuation and
common stop words (e.g., “the”) using
a text mining package (‘tm’) in R.
The 100 most frequently occurring
unigrams (single words) and 100 most
frequently occurring bigrams (two-word
sequences) were identified using a
natural language processing package
(‘NLP’) in R.
Qualitative content analysis was used to
identify emergent themes among those
unigrams and bigrams.
During the study period, 4,291 Instagram
posts from 1,908 unique public accounts and
145 posts from private accounts occured.
Themes that emerged among unigrams
included:
• Food items (e.g., coconut, fruit)
• Food qualities (e.g., organic, vegan)
• Eating occasions (e.g., breakfast, snack)
• Food descriptors (e.g., fresh, yummy)
• Family (e.g., family, children)
Similar themes emerged among bigrams, with
one additional theme:
• First-person declarative statements (e.g., I
love, I can, I don't, I made).
Content shared with #HealthyKids on Instagram reflected existing interest in
food and family-related topics. Notably, the words overweight, obese, and
obesity did not occur in any captions.
The high prevalence of first-person declarative statements may suggest that
the content and recruitment strategies for childhood obesity interventions
should take an individualized approach to increase personal relevance
among caregivers.
References
1. Bentley et al. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1308(1)
2. Paul et al. (2014). BMC Pediatrics, 14
3. Robinson (2010). Obesity, 18(S1)
4. Doub, Small, & Birch (2016). Appetite, 99
What topics are associated with healthy
child development on Instagram?
Image caption: It’s a snail kind of day!! Such a simple
snack. Cream cheese or laughing cow cheese for your
filling. Celery, cucumber carrots, and raisins for eyes! …
#healthykids #superhealthykids #funfood #kidsfood
#cleankids #momlife
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
healthyhealthykids
coconutoil
12cup
kidshealthykids
1cup
healthymomhealthykids
Ican
peanutbutter
healthykids
healthyhealthyfood
Ithink
happykidshealthykids
Ijust
healthylivinghealthykids
healthyliving
healthykidshealthyliving
healthyeating
littleones
oliveoil
yearold
foodprocessor
healthhealthy
HappyThanksgiving
Iget
linkprofile
Iused
2cups
glutenfree
14cup
cupcoconut
healthfitness
Igot
Mykids
lunchtoday
Iuse
healthykidsmotivation
cleaneatingfitmom
healthyfamily
kidslove
beachcalifornia
BlackOnBlack
everyday
healthybreakfastselflove
healthykids
mealprepBeachbody
oceanbeach
santacruzocean
soccermomhealthylunch
canget
holidayseason
Figure 1. Frequency distribution of the 100 most common bi-grams