Assessment of internet abuse risk and obesity relationship in middle school students in Yozgat city

Assessment of Internet Abuse Risk and Obesity Relationship in Middle School Students in Yozgat City Uncontrolled use of the internet causes internet addiction, making sedentary life widespread and laying the groundwork for obesity. This research was conducted in a descriptive-cross-sectional design to determine the relationship between internet use and obesity among secondary school students in the city center of Yozgat. The population and sample of the study were secondary school students in the city center of Yozgat. The research was completed with 450 secondary school students studying in the city center of Yozgat between March 2020 and November 2020. The data of the study were obtained by Family Questionnaire, Young Internet Addiction Scale (YIAS), Nutrition Behavior Scale (NBS) and Physical Activity Questionnaire (PAQ). The data were evaluated using descriptive statistics tests, independent groups t test, ANOVA analysis of variance, Pearson Correlation analysis and Linear Regression in the SPSS 23.0 program. In the search, 83.3% of secondary school students were in the 8th grade and 61.6% were in public secondary school, 55.8% were girls, an average of 12.73 ± 0.87 years old. Secondary school students were at an average weight of 50.45 ± 11.95 kilograms, an average height of 157.90 ± 9.27 cm and an average body mass index of 20.03 ± 3.60, and 22.2% of them were between the 50-75 percentile. Secondary school students had a low level of internet addiction with a score of 28.25±16.55 in YİBÖ, a very low level of healthy eating behaviors with a score of 0.76 ± 4.76 from the BDI, and a low level of physical activity with a score of 15.06 ± 7.70 in the FAS has been determined. It was determined that there is a positive significant relationship between the body mass index of the mothers and fathers of middle school students and the body mass index of the students. While there is a significant negative relationship between internet addiction and nutritional behavior of secondary school students; A negative and weakly significant relationship was found between internet addiction and physical activity level. It was determined that there is a positive significant relationship between internet addiction level of secondary school students and obesity. As a result, it was determined that internet addiction of middle school students decreased their healthy eating behaviors, while internet addiction and the increase in their mother and father's body mass index increased obesity in students. Keywords: Internet addiction, physical activity, feeding behavior, pediatric obesity, secondary school student.