Show and tell: Partnering with trusted messengers to combat weight supplement misinformation
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Who we are: Professor Monica Wang, Associate Professor at Boston University School of Public Health (BU SPH), Adjunct Associate Professor at Harvard Chan, and Executive Editor of Public Health Post and Professor Matt Motta, Associate Professor at BU SPH and Faculty Research Affiliate at the Center for Health Communication (CHC).
What we created: We co-led a BU SPH-funded pilot study with the CHC to test whether a content creator-driven strategy could combat weight loss supplement misinformation on TikTok. Our team developed an evidence-based digital toolkit with credible, accessible messaging about the health risks and regulation gaps of weight loss supplements, a $33 billion industry targeting women, teens, and communities of color. To test the toolkit, CHC’s Kate Speer helped us develop partnerships with seven diverse TikTok creators with a combined audience of nearly 2 million followers. Each creator had full creative freedom in how they used the toolkit to craft short-form videos tailored to their audiences. Even with a small-scale pilot, we saw measurable shifts. After receiving the toolkit, nearly 90% of the creators’ videos created as part of this project highlighted that weight loss supplements don’t require FDA premarket approval—up from fewer than 1% before. Mentions of health risks like liver damage, heart complications, and more also increased. This project was inspired by a similar campaign led by Kate Speer that resulted in New York state banning the sale of weight loss supplements to minors. This effort was also built on CHC research showing that training creators on mental health topics leads to broader public engagement with science-based content on social media.
Why it matters: Weight loss supplements are a largely unregulated industry that is aggressively marketed on social media to promote pseudoscientific claims. These products can cause serious harm, from liver damage to cardiovascular risks to disordered eating, and often exploit health anxieties in vulnerable populations. Yet, public health guidance rarely reaches the people being targeted by predatory content. Too often, public health messages are broadcast through top-down strategies that rarely reach the communities most at risk. By collaborating with digital creators who already have trust and reach in their communities, we’re reimagining how science and public health can show up in people’s lives.
What we learned: Science needs to be visible in the places people are getting their information. Our pilot shows that even a small-scale, low-cost intervention, it’s possible to work with digital creators who already have trust and reach in their communities to deliver content that’s accurate, accessible, and engaging. Partnering with trusted digital messengers can help bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and the everyday decisions people make about their health. Going forward, we hope to conduct research where we both deploy the interventions featured in our pilot study at scale and make an effort to study how social media audiences react to evidence-based diet supplement content.
