Prevalence of Eating Disorders and Their Association with Social Media Addiction among Youths

Prevalence of Eating Disorders and Their Association with Social Media Addiction among Youths

Eating disorders and excessive attachment to social media are a matter of great concern among youths. This study assessed the prevalence of eating disorders and their association with social media addiction among youths. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 350 participants aged 14–2...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nutrients Vol. 15; no. 21; p. 4687
Main Authors: Mushtaq, Tehreem, Ashraf, Seemab, Hameed, Huma, Irfan, Ali, Shahid, Maria, Kanwal, Rabbia, Aslam, Muhammad Arslan, Shahid, Hijab, Koh-E-Noor, Shazly, Gamal A, Khan, Mahtab Ahmad, Jardan, Yousef A. Bin
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-11-2023
Subjects:
Addictions
Addictive behaviors
Analysis
Anorexia
anorexia nervosa
Binge eating
Body image
Body mass index
Bulimia
bulimia nervosa
Children & youth
Eating behavior
Eating disorders
Females
Girls
Internet
Medical research
Medicine, Experimental
Mental disorders
Mental health
prevalence
Sample size
Self esteem
Self image
Smoking and youth
Social media
social media addiction
social networking site
Social networks
Teenagers
Women
Young adults
Youth
Pakistan
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Summary:Eating disorders and excessive attachment to social media are a matter of great concern among youths. This study assessed the prevalence of eating disorders and their association with social media addiction among youths. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 350 participants aged 14–25 years. Two pre-validated tools were used, i.e., the Eating Attitude Test and the Social Networking Addiction Scale. SPSS was used to analyze the data. Out of the 350 students, 42% had probable eating disorders, and 41.7% had social media addictions. The findings revealed that the chances of having eating disorders were significantly higher among youths who lived in separate places, smoked, and had a family history of eating disorders (p ≤ 0.05). Furthermore, the dieting domain displayed notably higher scores for youths living separately (p ≤ 0.05) and smokers (p ≤ 0.01). Moreover, the scores for bulimia and food preoccupation were significantly higher among participants who were married (p = 0.038), were smokers (p = 0.027), and had a family history of eating disorders (p = 0.001). Higher scores in the oral control domain were reported by females (p ≤ 0.05) and severely obese youths (p ≤ 0.01). Moreover, social media addiction was significantly higher among students aged 18–21 (p ≤ 0.01). Spearman’s correlation revealed that social media addiction has a weak positive relationship with eating disorders (r = 0.133, p ≤ 0.01), particularly bulimia and food preoccupation (r = 0.173, p ≤ 0.001). This reflects the need to address the harmful consequences of social media addiction that might raise the likelihood of developing eating disorders, particularly bulimia nervosa.
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ISSN:2072-6643
2072-6643
DOI:10.3390/nu15214687