Abstract

Analysis of state health department facebook posts about breastfeeding and formula feeding before and during the US infant formula shortage

Antara Das, MPH, MBBS, Jen Nickelson, PHD, RD, MCHES, Annie Chan and John Higginbotham, PhD, MPH
The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL

APHA 2024 Annual Meeting and Expo

Background: On February 17, 2022, upon confirmation of bacterial contamination of infant formula, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released a recall resulting in a nationwide infant formula shortage. Given that breastfeeding (BF) is recommended as the optimal form of infant nutrition, the formula shortage ostensibly presented an opportunity for state health officials to increase BF promotion efforts through their social media platforms. This study aimed to examine the change in infant feeding promotion on state public health departments’ (SPHDs’) Facebook (FB) posts during the infant formula shortage.

Methods: From SPHD websites, we identified 48 publicly available SPHD FB pages. We accessed data for an approximate 5-1/2-month period (February 17 to July 31) during (2022) and before (2021) the formula shortage. All English language posts on BF and formula feeding (FF) were reviewed for content based on a codebook developed using a collaborative qualitative analysis process. Codes included: BF education/resources, BF & COVID, formula recall, formula education/resources, BF as an alternative to formula, and WIC.

Result: A total of 652 posts were analyzed, 557 in 2022 and 95 in 2021 (p<0.001). Content most often discussed was formula education/resources in 2022 and BF education/resources in 2021. BF as an alternative to formula was never discussed in 2021 but represented nearly 12% of posts in 2022. In 2022, the number of BF education/resources posts increased but represented a smaller proportion of posts.

Conclusion: Social media is a cost-effective health promotion tool, and SPHDs appeared to respond to the formula crisis with increased content related to formula education/resources in addition to promoting BF as an alternative to formula. SPHDs should continue to promote BF as a healthy alternative to formula feeding throughout the year, irrespective of a formula shortage. Future research should examine how BF promotion has evolved since the formula shortage.

Communication and informatics Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs Public health or related education Public health or related research Social and behavioral sciences