Abstract
Background and aims.– On 1st May 2018 Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) of alcohol was introduced in Scotland. This study aimed to assess responses to the policy implementation in comments made on Twitter.
Methods.– All tweets relating to MUP were captured during the two weeks after the introduction of the policy. These tweets were assessed using a mixture of human and machine coding for relevance, sentiment and source. A thematic analysis was conducted.
Results.–74,639 tweets were collected over14days. Study findings demonstrate that opinion on the introduction of MUP in Scotland is divided, as far as is discernible on twitter, with a slightly higher proportion of positive posts, particularly in Scotland itself. Furthermore, 55% of positive tweets/retweets were originally made by health or alcohol policy-related individuals or organisations. Thematic analysis of tweets showed some evidence of misunderstanding around policy issues.
Conclusions.–It is possible to appreciate the divided nature of public opinion on the introduction of MUP in Scotland using twitter, the nature of the sentiment around it, and key actors involved, and it will be possible to later study how this changes when the policy becomes more established. Disclosure of interest.– The authors have not supplied a conflict of interest statement.
Methods.– All tweets relating to MUP were captured during the two weeks after the introduction of the policy. These tweets were assessed using a mixture of human and machine coding for relevance, sentiment and source. A thematic analysis was conducted.
Results.–74,639 tweets were collected over14days. Study findings demonstrate that opinion on the introduction of MUP in Scotland is divided, as far as is discernible on twitter, with a slightly higher proportion of positive posts, particularly in Scotland itself. Furthermore, 55% of positive tweets/retweets were originally made by health or alcohol policy-related individuals or organisations. Thematic analysis of tweets showed some evidence of misunderstanding around policy issues.
Conclusions.–It is possible to appreciate the divided nature of public opinion on the introduction of MUP in Scotland using twitter, the nature of the sentiment around it, and key actors involved, and it will be possible to later study how this changes when the policy becomes more established. Disclosure of interest.– The authors have not supplied a conflict of interest statement.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | European Psychiatry |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue number | S1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Apr 2019 |
| Event | European Congress of Psychiatry - Warsaw, Poland Duration: 6 Apr 2019 → 9 Apr 2019 Conference number: 27 https://www.europsy.net/epa-2019-warsaw/ |