Relationship between eating disorders and internet and smartphone addiction in college students.
PURPOSE
This study was planned and conducted to determine the relation between eating behavior disorder and smartphones and the internet in college students.


METHODS
This research was performed on a total of 437 college students, including 116 males and 321 females. A questionnaire questioning the general characteristics (age, sex, department, socioeconomic status, skipping meal, number of main meals and snacks in a day, sleeping duration, doing physical activity, height, and body weight) of students was used. In addition, Eating Attitude Test-40 (EAT-40), Young's Internet Addiction Scale, and Smartphone Addiction Scale were used to measure eating behavior disorders, internet addiction, and smartphone addiction, respectively. Height and body weight were measured in accordance with the method.


RESULTS
12.6% of the students participating in the study were at risk for eating disorders. Female students had higher EAT-40 scores than male students. 13% of students had potential internet addiction. According to Pearson chi-square test, the prevalence of potential internet addiction (36.4%) in students with eating disorder was higher than those without eating disorder (9.7%) (p < 0.05). Pearson correlation analyses displayed that Smartphone Addiction Test score associated positively with EAT-40 score (r = 0.277) and Internet Addiction Test score (r = 0.665) and students' body mass index (BMI) (r = 0.121). In addition to these, students' duration of staying on the internet correlated with their BMI (r = 0.137). Males had a higher rate of potential internet addiction than females (22.4% in males and 9.7% in females, respectively) (p < 0.05).


CONCLUSION
The present results suggest that students' duration of using the internet affects smartphone addiction and internet addiction, both of which influence eating behavior disorder. In addition, both smartphone and internet addiction and eating behavior disorder correlated positively and significantly with overweight.


LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
Level V: cross-sectional descriptive study.
['Tayhan Kartal|Fatma|F|http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8524-9048', 'Yabancı Ayhan|Nurcan|N|https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1233-246X']
D016739:Behavior, Addictive D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders D005260:Female D006801:Humans D020407:Internet D000082424:Internet Addiction Disorder D008297:Male D013334:Students
Eating disorder Internet Smartphone Addiction