Endocrine Abstracts

Background: 38% of teens use social media more than once an hour and 16% use it almost constantly (Rideout, 2018). Even so, the connection between smartphone use and nutrition and eating disorders is understudied and merits further study. Therefore, this study aims to examine the associations between smartphone use and eating disorders among adolescents.

Methods: The study enrolled 325 participants aged 14-19 years in Florida, US, with 46% (n=150 participants) with diagnosis of binge eating disorder (BED). Participants were assessed on demographics, household structure, eating disorders, nutrition, and smartphone use during meals.

Results: The mean participant age was 16.3±1.2 years. The statistical significance of study factors was assessed by using two-tailed t-tests with a 95% confidence level. Participants with BED were found more likely to browse their smartphones during meals (64.1% vs. 45.8%, P< 0.01). Similarly, participants affected by obesity (66.6% vs. 49.4%, P< 0.05), with high ultra-processed foods intake (64.2% vs. 40.2%, P< 0.01), who eat dinner alone (74.2% vs. 30.2%, P< 0.01), and with divorced parents (58.4% vs. 48.0%, P< 0.05) were more likely to use smartphone during meals. We analyzed activities that smartphones were used for during meals -- social-media (59% of participants), watching movies (45%), games (17%), sports (13%), shopping (12%), sports (12%), email (9%), news (5%).

Conclusions: Smartphone usage is significantly associated to BED, obesity, and high intake of ultra-processed foods. The study findings support the inclusion of smartphone usage when eating meals in future research and development of effective interventions.