Exploring the link: Social Media Usage and Body Image Dissatisfaction in Female Medical Students of Chengalpattu District, Chennai.

Background: The excessive use of social media among today's youth has also led to a large number of new-age problems like social media addiction, eating disorders, and body dysmorphia. Recent studies show emerging concerns linked with increased social media use and body image dissatisfaction. Although many studies have been done in other countries regarding the same, research on social media usage and body image dissatisfaction in the Indian scenario is still lagging. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of body image dissatisfaction among female medical students who use social media and find the association between social media usage and body image dissatisfaction. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 280 girls between the ages of 19 to 24 years from different years of medical school selected by simple random sampling. Participants were explained the nature of the study during their classes and informed consent was obtained. Female students who have been using social media for at least six months were included in the study and those who suffered from any pre-existing psychiatric illnesses were excluded. Data was collected using a pretested structured questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS version 22. Bivariate and Logistic Regression analyses were done to find the association between body image dissatisfaction and related variables. Results: Among a total of 280 participants, Instagram was the most commonly used social media app followed by WhatsApp and YouTube. The prevalence of body image dissatisfaction was 46.1% among study participants. Social media addiction was seen in 11.4% of participants. Variables that were significantly associated with body image dissatisfaction were body mass index including overweight (AOR = 7.53) and obese (AOR = 2.6) body mass indices, using more than three social media platforms (AOR = 1.86), deceptive behavior (AOR = 2.74) and social media addiction (AOR = 4.97). Conclusion: The impact of the increasing use of social media on today's youth is evident with the high prevalence of body image dissatisfaction. The current study highlights the need for future interventions and educational strategies to promote positive body image among medical students to cater to the prevention of eating disorders and other mental health issues. Further studies must be conducted on content analysis on social media sites that threaten the body image of our youth.