By: Rachel Nannola
The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine recently conducted a study about young adults’ use of social media and the effect it can have on eating disorders. Approximately 1,700 adults ages 19 through 32 filled out a social media questionnaire involving 11 of the most popular social media sites and their connection to eating disorders.
The results from this study indicate a strong and consistent association between social media use and eating concerns. The participants that spent the most time on social media had a 2.2 times greater risk of reporting eating and body image concerns. The concerns include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and other clinical mental health issues.
Media has always been thought to be a cause of eating concerns, but now that social media is highly available and in so many different forms, a startling increase in body image disorders and eating concerns has been quantifiably observed.
Since eating disorders are very serious, the results have been published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Additionally, certain social media platforms have worked to discourage unhealthy hashtags that could possibly increase the risk of eating disorders. Hopefully, more studies will be done in the future and more social media platforms will help to discourage unhealthy posts.
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