The Relationship between Social Media Addiction and Eating Disorders among Followers of Social Media Influencers

Oyku  Gul; Bilge  Meral Koc

doi:10.18502/ijph.v54i2.17909

Oyku Gul Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Bahcesehir University, Istanbul, Turkey
Bilge Meral Koc Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Izmir Democracy University, Izmir, Turkey

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v54i2.17909

Keywords: Social media; Social media addiction; Eating disorders; Nervosa

Abstract

Background: We aimed to evaluate the relationship between social media addiction and eating disorders in the followers of social media influencer.

Method: The study (n=561) was conducted with 112 men and 449 women, who follow a social media influencer and volunteered to participate in the study. Social media addiction scale for adults form (SMAS-AF) was used to evaluate the social media addiction, and ORTO-15 scale was used to determine the eating disorders.

Results: 80.9% of the participants had orthorexia nervosa and 19.1% were normal. BMI and social media addiction scale total score were significantly higher than optimal rates and ORTO-15 total score was significantly low (P<0.05). Age, anthropometric measurements, sub-scores of SMAS-AF and clinical domain sub-score of orthorexia nervosa were significantly different between the groups (P<0.05). It was significantly found that the emotional domain sub-score increased as the virtual tolerance score and virtual communication score increased (P<0.05). A relationship was found between the total score of the social media addiction scale and the emotional domain sub-score (P<0.05).

Conclusion: Social media use may negatively affect individuals’ eating behaviors and contribute to body image dissatisfaction.