The association between social media use and dietary intake among adolescents in Türkiye: a cross sectional study.

Introduction: Social media usage has surged up among adolescents and its relationship with dietary intake is unclear. This paper investigated the association between social media use and dietary intake among adolescents in Turkiye. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted. Convenience sampling was chosen. Private schools located in two cities in the Central and Eastern regions of Turkiye (Şanlıurfa and Karaman). The sample consisted of 251 adolescents (13-18 years of age) and 49% of them were male. Dietary data were collected using a validated food frequency questionnaire. The multiple regression analysis adjusted for age groups were used to assess the relationship between social media use and dietary intake. Then Benjamini-Hochberg FDR correction was applied. All the data are based on β (unstandardized) with standard error (SE) (β±SE). Results: Fewer than half of the participants reported using social media for over three hours daily (47.4%). The late adolescents used social media more than three hours a day ( Conclusions: The results indicate that prolonged use of social media is associated with higher energy, fat, sucrose, zinc and calcium consumption. These adolescents have a diet richer in micronutrients but also they follow a more obesogenic dietary pattern, which may be related to an increased risk of inflammatory and chronic diseases later in life. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine a causal relationship.