Is obesity and body perception disturbance related to social media addiction among university students?

Abstract

Objective The use of social networks has grown substantially over the past few years and especially during COVID-19. This study aims to investigate the possible relationship between social media addiction and obesity which may lead to disturbed body perception in university students.

Participants: A total of 250 undergraduates participated.

Results: Social media addiction depends on the number of years of social media use, meal skipping, and increased frequency of fast food consumption. There was a significant relationship between fast-food consumption frequency and body perception. No significant relationship was found between BMI and SMAS while there was a significant relationship between SMAS and body perception.

Conclusion: The findings support, social media addiction may lead to increased risk factors for obesity and as a consequence impair body perception in young adults.

Keywords:

• Body perception
• internet
• obesity
• social media addiction

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements of Turkey and received ethical approval from the Yeditepe University.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.