Examination of the relationship between nutrition exercise behavior and internet addiction in adolescents

This descriptive research was carried out with a total of 421 students in 12 public secondary schools located in the center of Fethiye, with the aim of determining the relationship between adolescents' nutrition-exercise behaviors and internet addiction. Introductory Information Form, Internet Addiction Scale and Nutrition Exercise Behavior Scale were used as data collection tools. The data were collected by the researcher after obtaining ethical committee and institutional permissions, parental consent and student approval. Mann Whitney U test, Kruskall-Wallis Analysis of Variance, Spearman Correlation Analysis and Stepwise Regression Analysis were used in the analysis of the data. Students' psychological/addictive eating behavior sub-dimension mean score was 38.9±8.8, healthy eating/exercise sub-dimension mean score was 47.6±9.4, unhealthy eating/exercise behavior sub-dimension mean score was 49.0±7.0, meal order sub-dimension mean score was 23.4±4.5. found. Internet addiction scale mean score is 19.6±7.5. As a result of the stepwise regression analysis, it was determined that the father's education level, the state of thinking that he is eating healthy, the change in nutritional behavior in the Covid 19 pandemic and the habit of snacking while using the internet predicted psychological/addictive eating behavior. According to the correlation analysis, a significant inverse relationship was found between the students' mean scores of internet addiction and psychological/addictive eating behavior, healthy nutrition/exercise behaviour, unhealthy diet/exercise and meal order sub-dimension scores (p<0.001). In order to support the healthy development of adolescents, child health nurses have important roles in creating programs to develop healthy lifestyle habits of pediatric nurses and delivering them to students.