The Relationship Between Social Media Addiction and Orthorexia Nervosa in Adult Individuals Admitted to Obesity Polyclinic

Beyza Sena Şener, Hilal Özkaya

Keywords: Obesity, Social Media Addiction, Orthorexia Nervosa, Family Medicine

Background:

Obesity is becoming more common in the world day by day. Orthorexia nervosa; to make healthy and proper nutrition obsessive and to show obsessive behaviors in this regard. There are studies on the relationship of orthorexia nervosa with obesity and social media use.

Research questions:

What is the frequency of orthorexia nervosa in obese individuals? How does the presence of orthorexia nervosa in obese individuals affect obesity management? Does social media addiction increase the incidence of orthorexia in obese individuals?

Method:

The cross-sectional study was conducted with 174 participants who admitted to the obesity polyclinic between 01.11.2022-01.02.2023 and covered the inclusion criteria, and their sociodemographic information, social media use and addiction status (with SMBÖ-SF scale) and the presence of orthorexia nervosa (with ORTO-11 scale) were investigated.

Results:

A total of 174 people of 117 (67.2%) women and 57 (32.8%) men were included to our study. The majority of the participants (41.4%) are between the ages of 18-30. The mean BMI value was 30.53±5.10. The mean score of the participants was 28.33±4.61 on the orthorexia nervosa scale and 46.47±14.78 on the social media addiction scale.
According to the BMI value, those who were obese had higher SMBÖ-SF scores compared to those who were overweight. A statistically significant negative relationship was found between the total score of ORTO-11 and the "Virtual communication" score of the SMBÖ-YF sub-dimensions.

Conclusions:

In our study, it was found that the incidence of orthorexia nervosa was higher in obese individuals who scored higher on the social media addiction scale. This situation; it has been shown that sharing on social media can have an impact on people's body image and diet. It was concluded that informing obese individuals who admitted to the polyclinic about nutrition is important in protecting against popular trends in social media and possible eating disorders.

Points for discussion: