P0007 - A social media analysis about the use and efficacy of alternative child sleep aids

Introduction: Past studies have indicated that up to 75% of parents seek parenting and healthcare advice via social media. However, little is known about information on social media about child sleep problems, which impact 25-40% of youth. Despite a robust evidence-base for behavioral sleep treatments, many families use alternative sleep aids, including melatonin, weighted blankets, lavender, and other essential oils to treat child sleep problems. The purpose of this study was to investigate the messages being disseminated via Twitter about melatonin and these other non-pharmacological sleep aids in children.

Methods: Utilizing TweetDeck to identify all postings on Twitter related to alternative sleep aids and child sleep, we collected 1,159 tweets between January 1, 2019 and January 31, 2020. Tweets were coded by trained research assistants for user type, positive or negative tone, and positive/negative health outcomes (kappa values for 20% of coded data = .43-1.00). Chi-square analyses were used to examine variation across sleep aid types and coding categories.

Results: Of the 1,159 tweets collected, 37.7% (n=437) were related to melatonin, 4.6% (n=56) for CBD, and 62.3% for non-pharmacological sleep aids (22.8% weighted blankets, 8.7% essential oils, and 30.8% lavender). The majority of tweets were published by random users (84.2%) versus public companies (9.8%), health care professionals/academic institutions (1.4%), or news outlets (0.7%), p<.001. Overall, 51.4% of all tweets about sleep aids were positive, 14.2% were negative, and 34.4% neutral, p<.001. Tweets about nonpharmacological aids (66.6%) were more likely to be positive than related to melatonin (42.8%), p<.001. Slightly more than half of tweets about non-pharmacological sleep aids noted positive health effects (53.7%), whereas only 32% noted positive effects of melatonin p<.001. Thirteen percent of overall tweets mentioned a neurodevelopmental condition (ADHD, ASD). Of those, 43.3% were related to the use of weighted blankets.

Conclusions: Overall, use of alternative sleep aids for children are a topic discussed on Twitter, with the majority of tweets related to non-pharmacological aids, such as weighted blankets and essential oils. Melatonin is also discussed, although only half of tweets are positive about its use. The use of these aids was often discussed within the context of neurodevelopmental conditions, especially the use of weighted blankets. Most striking is that this information is being presented by random users, with 10% of all tweets generated by public companies advertising about these products via Twitter. Very few health care professionals or academic institutions/organizations are chiming in. Given that social media is a common resource for parents and caregivers, it is important that providers use this outlet to provide balanced and empirically-based information regarding the efficacy and benefits/risks of these alternative treatments.

Funding: This project was partially supported by Johnson and Johnson Consumer Health (JAM) and NIH K23HD094905 (AAW).