해외 유명인 언급과 소셜 미디어를 통해 발생한 국내 대중의 비만치료제 관심도와 반응 분석

Abstract

BACKGROUNDS Obesity is a growing public health concern, and anti-obesity medications have gained attention as a therapeutic alternative. Recently, public interest in drugs like Wegovy has surged, particularly influenced by celebrity mentions and social media trends. This study aims to explore how such external influences affect public awareness and sentiment toward anti-obesity medications in South Korea and the United States. METHODS We collected and analyzed data from Google Trends, Naver Data Lab, BigKinds news articles, and Naver Cafe posts. Keyword trend analysis, TFIDF weighting, and relationship mapping were conducted for news articles. Lexicon-based sentiment analysis and machine learning- based classification using Naive Bayes were applied to user-generated content. The data were preprocessed by removing special characters and performing morphological analysis. RESULTS After public mentions by celebrities such as Elon Musk, interest in Wegovy significantly increased, as observed in both search volume and online discussions. Sentiment analysis showed that most reactions were negative, primarily due to concerns about side effects and high cost. The machine learning model classified emotional tone more precisely compared to lexicon-based analysis. CONCLUSION Celebrity influence and social media exposure appear to correlate with increased interest in anti-obesity drugs. This study provides a foundational reference for public health communication strategies, while highlighting the need for policy considerations around the uncritical spread of medical information online.