2023-11-30 01:31:01
Social networks have their beneficial aspects, but they can also be harmful to our health. It all depends on the use that is made of it. Now, a study published in ‘The BMJ‘ warns that the use of social networks is associated with risky health behaviors in young people, such as, for example, increased consumption of alcohol, drugs and tobacco, antisocial behavior, risky sexual behavior and gambling.
Exposure to risky health behavior content on social media, such as alcohol advertising, had the strongest evidence of harm, particularly in relation to alcohol consumption and unhealthy eating.
The authors of the research acknowledge that more research is needed to establish causality, to understand the effects on health inequalities and to determine which aspects of social networks are most harmful.
Social media use has expanded rapidly and is recognized as a platform to promote health, but there are concerns about its potential impact on health risk behaviors among adolescents.
Some previous studies have already identified harmful links between social networks and some risk behaviors, but most of them have focused only on students.
To address this knowledge gap, researchers set out to examine the association between social media use and health risk behaviors in adolescents (ages 10 to 19).
Their findings are based on the analysis of more than 250 measures of social networks in 73 studies carried out between 1997 and 2022 in which 1.4 million adolescents participated (average age 15 years).
Most of the studies were carried out in high-income countries and were of varying quality, but the researchers were able to assess the certainty of the evidence using the recognized system GRADE.
Frequent use of social networks was associated with risky sexual behaviors such as sexting and antisocial behaviors.
Their analyzes showed that frequent or daily use of social media was associated with higher odds of alcohol use (48%), drug use (28%), and tobacco use (85%) compared with infrequent or daily use. not daily.
The results showed that frequent or daily use of social networks was associated with risky sexual behaviors such as sexting, transactional sex and inconsistent condom use (77%), antisocial behaviors such as intimidation, physical assault and aggressive/delinquent behavior (73%), and almost three times more likely to engage in gambling, compared to infrequent or non-daily use.
Additionally, exposure to health risk behavior content on social media was especially associated with unhealthy eating and alcohol consumption. For example, regarding alcohol consumption, stronger associations were found for adolescents over 16 years of age, while spending at least two hours a day on social media doubled the odds of consuming alcohol compared to less than two hours of social media. use.
The researchers acknowledge that most social media assessments were based on personal memories and cannot rule out the possibility that other unmeasured factors, such as parental health risk behaviors, may have influenced their results.
However, they point out that it is an exhaustive and well-designed review.
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