Time Spent on Social Media During The COVID-19 Pandemic is Associated with A Healthy Eating Obsession and Anxiety Symptoms: A Cross-Sectional Study of 525 Adults in Semi-Quarantine

Abstract

Purpose: The increase in social media exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic may cause an increase in the obsession of healthy eating and anxiety symptoms. The interaction between social media, obsessive healthy eating and anxiety symptoms was evaluated. Methods: An online questionnaire was applied to individuals in COVID-19 semi-quarantine (n=525) using Google forms. Orthorexia and anxiety symptoms were evaluated using the ORTO-11 and Generalised Anxiety Disorder questionnaires, respectively. Results: The time spent on social media to follow the COVID-19, health, and nutrition news was closely associated with higher orthorexic symptoms in both sexes, and higher anxiety symptoms in women (r=-0.638 in men; r=-0.560 in women, p<0.001). High rates of anxiety (62.4% in men; 95.4% in women) and an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating (67% in men, 83.2% in women) were detected in individuals in the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: While the COVID-19 pandemic causes negative effects on both eating behaviour and anxiety disorders, the use of social media to follow healthy nutrition news can also exacerbate these problems. Therefore, it is important to increase awareness about the use of social media during the pandemic, to detect healthy eating obsessions and anxiety symptoms earlier, and to prevent the harmful consequences of these problems in the long term.