- Title
- Impact of increasing social media use on sitting time and body mass index
- Creator
- Alley, Stephanie; Wellens, Pauline; Schoeppe, Stephanie; de Vries, Hein; Rebar, Amanda L.; Short, Camille E.; Duncan, Mitch J.; Vandelanotte, Corneel
- Relation
- Health Promotion Journal of Australia Vol. 28, Issue 2, p. 91-95
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/HE16026
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- Issue addressed: Sedentary behaviours, in particular sitting, increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and poorer mental health status. In Australia, 70% of adults sit for more than 8h per day. The use of social media applications (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) is on the rise; however, no studies have explored the association of social media use with sitting time and body mass index (BMI). Methods: Cross-sectional self-report data on demographics, BMI and sitting time were collected from 1140 participants in the 2013 Queensland Social Survey. Generalised linear models were used to estimate associations of a social media score calculated from social media use, perceived importance of social media, and number of social media contacts with sitting time and BMI. Results: Participants with a high social media score had significantly greater sitting times while using a computer in leisure time and significantly greater total sitting time on non-workdays. However, no associations were found between social media score and sitting to view TV, use motorised transport, work or participate in other leisure activities; or total workday, total sitting time or BMI. Conclusions: These results indicate that social media use is associated with increased sitting time while using a computer, and total sitting time on non-workdays. So what? The rise in social media use may have a negative impact on health by contributing to computer sitting and total sitting time on non-workdays. Future longitudinal research with a representative sample and objective sitting measures is needed to confirm findings.
- Subject
- computer; screen time; sedentary behaviour; social networking
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1396465
- Identifier
- uon:34046
- Identifier
- ISSN:1036-1073
- Rights
- CC BY-NC-ND This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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