Research published in journal of nutritionfound that smartphone use time and type of content were associated with unhealthy dietary intake in adolescents.
Traditional screen time, such as television viewing, is an important factor influencing eating behavior and obesity risk in adolescents. Compared to televisions and personal computers, smartphones make it easier to access a wide range of content regardless of time and place, so smartphones are thought to have a significant impact on the diet of adolescents. To better understand the impact of adolescent smartphone users’ smartphone usage patterns (duration and type of content) and dietary risk factors, researcher Hannah Oh (Korea University) and colleagues conducted a nationally representative study. A cross-sectional analysis was performed using a representative sample of 54,601 middle and high school students. – School students in the 2017 Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey.
Girls and boys aged 12 to 18 were more likely to use smartphones (mean time and type of content used most frequently) and dietary risks previously shown to be associated with obesity and cardiovascular disease. Completed an online-based questionnaire evaluating factors. Diabetes, and certain cancers. Participants were asked to report their average time spent on smartphones on weekdays and weekends, and the type of smartphone content used most frequently. Content types on smartphones are classified into her 7 groups in the last 30 days: education/information retrieval, messenger/email, SNS/forums, games, movies/videos/music, webtoons/web novels, shopping/others. I was. We used this information to calculate her average daily smartphone usage. We reported the frequency of breakfast intake and the frequency of each food group (fruits and vegetables, Korean instant noodles, fast food, potato chips/crackers, and sugary drinks) over the past 7 days.
Prolonged smartphone use (≥300 min/day compared with 1–59 min/day) was associated with higher prevalence of all dietary risk factors except frequent consumption of chips/crackers. was related. For most dietary risk factors, the association was statistically significant when smartphone use exceeded his 120 minutes per day. Those who use smartphones mainly for messenger/email, SNS/forms, and games tend to consume fruits and vegetables less frequently than those who use them for education/information retrieval. Using smartphones primarily for messenger/email and social networking services/forms was also associated with more frequent intake of sugary drinks.
Today’s food manufacturers and marketers use digital platforms such as social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and content sharing platforms (YouTube, etc.) to reach young people. Long-time smartphone users are more likely to be exposed to food advertisements and marketing content, exposing them to misleading messages and creating misconceptions about food. Some of the ads are disguised within various digital media content such as games, videos, and blogs shared by friends and social media influencers, facilitating indiscriminate exposure to unhealthy food marketing.
Given the intensification of smartphone use among adolescents, the authors provide appropriate guidance for developing healthy smartphone-using behaviors, targeting young children and adolescents in the digital space. concluded that more efforts need to be made to introduce restrictions on the marketing of unhealthy foods such as
References
Seaun Ryu, Hajin Jang, Hannah Oh, Patterns of Smartphone Use and Dietary Risk Factors for Adolescents, journal of nutritionVol. 152, Issue 9, September 2022, pp. 2109-2116, https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxac098.
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