Author Education and Evidence-Based Writing in Nutrition and Food Blogs

OBJECTIVES: Nutrition and food blogs are internet sites that document and deliver information regarding nutrition guidance, food recipes, and cooking. Despite their popularity, little is known about the credibility of the nutrition information distributed. The objective of this study was to examine relationships between education of nutrition and food blog authors and use of evidence-based writing in their articles. METHODS: A purposive-snowball sampling approach was utilized to select blogs using search engines. Inclusion criteria for blogs was defined as: nutrition and food as main topic; active websites; and written in English. Data collection continued until a sample of 500 blogs was achieved. Evidence-based writing was examined by dividing blogs into two groups: evidence-based (those with scientific journals/websites cited as references for articles) and not evidence-based (no references). Pearson Chi-Square analysis was used to test relationship significance. RESULTS: Blog type categories include independent (n = 397), food commodity boards (n = 48), food/nutrition companies (n = 48), and other (n = 7). There was a significant relationship between evidence-based writing and blog type; of the 278 evidence-based blogs, 80.2% were independent, 12.9% commodity, and 6.8% company (p = 0.002). Evidence-based writing was significantly related to author education. Among the 223 independent evidence-based blogs, 59.6% of authors had a graduate degree, 33.6% bachelor's degree, and 6.7% without any education listed (P < 0.001). The majority of blogs from food commodity boards and food/nutrition companies did not include any author information and were excluded from analyses involving author education. CONCLUSIONS: A higher use of evidenced-based writing was found among independent nutrition and food blogs, as compared to those from food commodity boards and food/nutrition companies. Authors with bachelor's and graduate degrees had the majority of blogs with evidence-based writing, as compared to authors with no education listed. This research suggests the importance of author education for disseminating evidence-based nutrition information through nutrition and food blogs. FUNDING SOURCES: Bess Heflin Centennial Professorship.