New research from\u00a0the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience\u00a0(IoPPN)\u00a0at King’s College London has found that\u00a0excessive smartphone use is\u00a0closely associated\u00a0with disordered eating, including uncontrolled eating and emotional overeating, as well greater symptoms of food addiction in\u00a0young\u00a0people\u00a0with no diagnosis of\u00a0an eating disorder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The research, published in\u00a0the\u00a0Journal of Medical Internet Research,\u00a0established\u00a0a significant and consistent association between\u00a0Problematic Smartphone Use (PSU)\u00a0– whereby an individual becomes behaviorally or psychologically reliant on their smartphone –\u00a0and eating disorder\u00a0symptom\u00a0severity.\u00a0Researchers argue\u00a0this\u00a0highlights the need for early\u00a0intervention strategies\u00a0specific to excessive phone use\u00a0for\u00a0young people displaying\u00a0eating disorder symptoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While there has been research conducted into the negative impact that problematic internet usage, exposure to social media, and harmful online content can have on body image and body dysphoria in both clinical and non-clinical populations, none have specifically examined\u00a0PSU.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Researchers\u00a0identified\u00a035 studies in which to include in\u00a0this\u00a0systematic review.\u00a0The studies were from across the globe and provided researchers with a sample size of 52,584 participants with an average age of 17.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their analysis of the data found that\u00a0higher daily smartphone use\u00a0was\u00a0also\u00a0related to greater food addiction symptoms, broader disordered eating\u00a0behaviours\u00a0like uncontrolled eating or emotional overeating, and body dissatisfaction\u00a0in people with no diagnosis of an eating disorder. The association was particularly strong in those who use their phones for more than seven hours a day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ben Carter, Professor of Medical Statistics at King’s IoPPN and the study’s senior\u00a0author\u00a0said, “Smartphones have become ubiquitous in our everyday lives. It is\u00a0apparent\u00a0from\u00a0our study that, even for people without a diagnosis of an eating disorder, the overuse of a smartphone is associated with poor body satisfaction and altered eating\u00a0behaviours, and is\u00a0a potential source of\u00a0distress”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr Johanna Keeler,\u00a0a\u00a0Visiting Lecturer\u00a0at King’s\u00a0IoPPN\u00a0and the study’s first\u00a0author\u00a0said,\u00a0“Adolescence is a key stage of development as individuals\u00a0evolve their sense of self by\u00a0observing\u00a0others. While smartphones might present\u00a0an easy way\u00a0for this to happen, being consistently exposed to\u00a0idealised\u00a0images can lead them to compare their own appearance with these “standards”,\u00a0leading to poor\u00a0self-esteem\u00a0and appearance dissatisfaction\u00a0– both\u00a0risk factors for the development of an eating disorder.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Source:<\/p>\n
Journal reference:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New research from\u00a0the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience\u00a0(IoPPN)\u00a0at King’s College London has found that\u00a0excessive smartphone use is\u00a0closely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1472,36038,426,103,61,206,60,87,1703,413,89,7700,58,2055],"class_list":["post-345248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-addiction","tag-eating-disorder","tag-food","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-internet","tag-ireland","tag-neuroscience","tag-psychiatry","tag-psychology","tag-research","tag-smartphone","tag-social-media","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}