Investigation of the relationship between social media use and social appearance anxiety and depression level of medical school students

AIM: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between social media use and social appearance anxiety and depression levels of Ondokuz Mayıs University Faculty of Medicine students. Material and Methods: It is a cross-sectional study. Between 15.09.2022 - 15.09.2023, 312 students studying at Ondokuz Mayıs University Faculty of Medicine participated in our study. Data were collected in the classrooms under the supervision of the researcher. The questionnaire included questions about the participants' sociodemographic characteristics and social media use, social appearance anxiety scale and beck depression scale. Results: 59.4% of the participants were female and 40.6% were male. The mean age of the participants was 21.7±2.4 years. Social appearance anxiety was significantly higher in women. Social appearance anxiety was found to be significantly higher in those who compared their own appearance with the people seen on social media, who followed the likes on their posts, and who cared about getting few likes on their posts. Symptoms of depression were found to be significantly higher in female participants, those whose social media usage time was between 1-3 hours, those who compared their own appearance with the people they saw on social media, and those who did not care about receiving few likes on their social media posts. Conclusion: Guidance and counseling services can be provided to protect young people from the harms of social media, increase their awareness, and ensure that they prefer virtual environments less for socializing. It is important that family physicians who provide primary health care services are aware and guide both young people and families. Keywords: social media, social appearance anxiety, depression, medical students