Investigation of the relationship between smartphone addiction and overweight on university students

Aim: Smartphone addiction and overweight are among the most important public health problems that are increasing day by day.However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no study investigating the relationship between these two health problems. The aimof this study was to investigate the relationship between smartphone addiction and overweight among university students.Material and Methods: The sample of this cross-sectional study consisted of 325 volunteers, 185 female and 140 male students.After the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Form (SAS-SF) and sociodemographic data form were applied to the volunteers, theirheight and weight were measured with the same device. Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated and the sample was divided intonormal weight (24.5 kg/m2 ≤ BMI ≤ 24.9 kg/m2) and overweight (BMI ≥ 25 kg/ m2).Results: The mean age of the volunteers included in the study was 22.38 ± 3.15 years and 56.9% (n = 185) of them were females.SAS-SF scores of the participants were found to be statistically different between normal and overweight groups (t=-2.524, p=0.012).According to the logistic regression analysis model used to determine the predictors of being overweight, being a smartphone addictincreases the risk of being overweight twice.Conclusion: The study suggests that there is a relationship between smartphone use and being overweight. The results of ourstudy are important since it is the first study that shows that smartphone addiction increases the risk of being overweight. In orderto explain the relationship between these two important health problems, studies including other reasons of being overweight areneeded.

PDF

___

1. Moussa OM, Erridge S, Chidambaram S, et al. Mortality of the severely obese: a population study. Ann Surg 2019;269:1087-91.
2. Roberto CA, Swinburn B, Hawkes C, et al. Patchy progress on obesity prevention: emerging examples, entrenched barriers, and new thinking. The Lancet 2015;385:2400-9.
3. World Health Organization. World Health Organization obesity and overweight fact sheet. 2016.
4. Gregg EW, Shaw JE. Global health effects of overweight and obesity. N Engl J Med 2017;377:80-1.
5. Upadhyay J, Farr O, Perakakis N, et al. Obesity as a disease. Medical Clinics 2018;102:13-33.
6. Romain AJ, Marleau J, Baillot A. Impact of obesity and mood disorders on physical comorbidities, psychological well-being, health behaviours and use of health services. J Affect Disord 2018;225:381-8.
7. Stice E, Shaw H, Marti CN. A meta-analytic review of obesity prevention programs for children and adolescents: the skinny on interventions that work. Psychol Bull 2006;132:667.
8. Vainik U, Baker TE, Dadar M, et al. Neurobehavioral correlates of obesity are largely heritable. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2018;115:9312-7.
9. Rhee KE, Kessl S, Lindback S, et al. Provider views on childhood obesity management in primary care settings: a mixed methods analysis. BMC Health Serv Res 2018;18:55.
10. Zanganeh M, Adab P, Li B, et al. A systematic review of methods, study quality, and results of economic evaluation for childhood and adolescent obesity intervention. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2019;16:485.
11. McCuen-Wurst C, Allison KC. Obesity, Eating Disorder and Addiction. In: Wadden TA, Bray GA, eds. Handbook of obesity treatment. 2st editon. London: Guilford Publications; 2018. p.169-84.
12. Cope EC, Gould E. New evidence linking obesity and food addiction. Biol Psychiatry 2017;81:734-6.
13. Kwon M, Kim DJ, Cho H, Yang S. The smartphone addiction scale: development and validation of a short version for adolescents. PLoS One 2013;8:83558.
14. Coban DA, Gundogmus I. Effect of smartphone usage profiles on addiction in a university student: a crosssectional study. Neurol Sci 2019;32:87-94.
15. Samaha M, Hawi NS. Relationships among smartphone addiction, stress, academic performance, and satisfaction with life. Comput Human Behav 2016;57:321-5.
16. Kim S-E, Kim J-W, Jee Y-S. Relationship between smartphone addiction and physical activity in Chinese international students in Korea. Journal of behavioral addictions 2015;4:200-5.
17. Panova T, Carbonell X. Is smartphone addiction really an addiction? Journal of behavioral addictions 2018;7:252-9.
18. Pearson C, Hussain Z. Smartphone use, addiction, narcissism, and personality: A mixed methods investigation. In: Gaming and Technology Addiction: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice. 1st editon. Pennsylvania: IGI Global 2017. p. 212-29.
19. Enez Darcin A, Kose S, Noyan CO, et al. Smartphone addiction and its relationship with social anxiety and loneliness. Behav Inf Technol 2016;35:520-5.
20. Choi D. Physical activity level, sleep quality, attention control and self-regulated learning along to smartphone addiction among college students. Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society 2015;16:429-37.
21. Hwang K-H, Yoo Y-S, Cho O-H. Smartphone overuse and upper extremity pain, anxiety, depression, and interpersonal relationships among college students. The Journal of the Korea Contents Association 2012;12:365-75.
22. Xie Y, Szeto GP, Dai J, et al. A comparison of muscle activity in using touchscreen smartphone among young people with and without chronic neck–shoulder pain. Ergonomics 2016;59:61-72.
23. Noyan CO, Enez Darçin A, Nurmedov S, et al. Akıllı Telefon Bağımlılığı Ölçeğinin Kısa Formunun üniversite öğrencilerindeTürkçe geçerlilik ve güvenilirlik çalışması. Anadolu Psikiyatri Dergisi 2015;16:73-81.
24. Flegal KM, Kit BK, Orpan H, et al. Association of allcause mortality with overweight and obesity using standard body mass index categories: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA 2013;309:71-82.
25. Davey S, Davey A. Assessment of smartphone addiction in Indian adolescents: a mixed method study by systematic-review and meta-analysis approach. Int J Prev Med 2014;5:1500.
26. Cüceloğlu D. İnsan ve davranışı. İstanbul:Remzi Kitabevi; 2015.
27. Kuss DJ, Griffiths MD. Online social networking and addiction—a review of the psychological literature. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2011;8:3528-52.
28. Adams J, Kirkby RJ. Excessive exercise as an addiction: A review. Addiction Research & Theory 2002;10:415-37.
29. Bakker D, Kazantzis N, Rickwood D, et al. Mental health smartphone apps: review and evidence-based recommendations for future developments. JMIR Mental Health 2016;3:1-31.
30. Darcin AE, Noyan C, Nurmedov S, et al. Smartphone addiction in relation with social anxiety and loneliness among university students in Turkey. Eur Psychiatry 2015;30:505.
31. Rotondi V, Stanca L, Tomasuolo M. Connecting alone: Smartphone use, quality of social interactions and well-being. J Econ Psychol 2017;63:17-26.
32. Demirci K, Akgönül M, Akpinar A. Relationship of smartphone use severity with sleep quality, depression, and anxiety in university students. J Behav Addict 2015;4:85-92.
33. Hussain Z, Griffiths MD, Sheffield D. An investigation into problematic smartphone use: The role of narcissism, anxiety, and personality factors. J Behav Addict 2017;6:378-86.