Investigation of social media addiction, physical activity and nutritional status of university students

Nowadays, social media has become an integral part of people's lives. However, the habit of using social media may turn into an addiction over time. Social media addiction can have a detrimental effect on individuals' physical health, psychological health, and nutritional behaviour. This research was conducted to determine social media addiction among university students and the effect of social media addiction on nutritional status and physical activity. The research is a descriptive cross-sectional study, to which 406 university students have voluntarily participated. Data were collected with an online questionnaire. In this study, demographic characteristics, nutritional status, physical activity levels of students were questioned and the 'Social Media Addiction Scale (SMAS)' was used to assess social media addiction and the 'Mediterranean Diet Quality Index' was used to determine nutritional status. 25.6% of the students participating in the study were males, 74.4% were females and their mean age was 21.07±3.06. 66.0% of the students consume two main meals, and the most skipped meal is lunch. The adaptation of 59.6% of male students and 57.9% of female students to the Mediterranean Diet is moderate. Students studying at the Faculty of Health Sciences are more likely to adapt to the Mediterranean diet than students at other faculties. (p<0.05). During the consumption of the main meal, 6.3% of the students always use social media, 20.0% often use social media; while 18.9% do not use social media. Different levels of social media addiction were detected at 63.8% of students. 45.6% of the students have low physical activity levels. Social media addiction increases (p<0.05) as the adherence to the Mediterranean Diet decreases. No correlation was found between physical activity levels and SMAS score (p>0.05). As a result, social media addiction affects students' healthy nutritional status. Students should gain awareness of not eating during the use of social media, not using social media during the consumption of the main meal, not consuming snacks while using social media, and acquiring healthy eating habits. They should be educated on their diet to comply with the Mediterranean diet, which is considered to be the healthiest form of nutrition, and awareness should be increased on this diets' effects on health.