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. 2024 Nov 15;43(1):187.
doi: 10.1186/s41043-024-00675-4.

A cross-sectional descriptive analysis of technology addiction in adolescents: associations with food addiction, emotional eating, and body weight status

Hilal Toklu Baloglu  1 , Zeynep Caferoglu Akin  2   3
Affiliations

A cross-sectional descriptive analysis of technology addiction in adolescents: associations with food addiction, emotional eating, and body weight status

Hilal Toklu Baloglu et al. J Health Popul Nutr. .

Abstract

Background: This cross-sectional descriptive study aimed to determine the prevalence and risk factors of technology addiction (TA) in adolescents, as well as investigate the association of TA with food addiction and emotional eating by body weight status.

Methods: Adolescents (n = 1388) completed a questionnaire that featured socio-demographic characteristics, the Game Addiction Scale (GAS), the Social Media Disorder Scale (SMD), the dimensional Yale Food Addiction Scale for Children 2.0 (dYFAS-C 2.0), and the Emotional Eating Scale Adapted for Use in Children and Adolescents (EES-C). The body mass index (BMI) Z-score was classified according to the World Health Organization.

Results: TA was present in one-fifth of adolescents, and boys were four times more likely to develop a digital game addiction (p < 0.001). A 1-point increase in the GAS score is associated with a 1.08-point increase in the dYFAS-C-2.0 score and a 0.5-point increase in the total EES-C score (p < 0.001). A 1-point increase in the SMD score was also related to an increased of 1.21 and 1.26, respectively (p < 0.001). All of these positive associations were significant in adolescents with overweight (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: Given the rapidly increasing prevalence of TA among adolescents, its association with food addiction, emotional eating, and body weight status is worrisome, and our findings shed light on the relevance of developing strategies to reduce the prevalence of TA in this population.

Keywords: Adolescent; BMI; Emotional eating; Food addiction; Technology addiction.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate All procedures were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and this study has been approved by the Erciyes University Social and Humanities Science Ethics Committee (approval number: 113). We informed administrators, school teachers, and parents about the research. We obtained written informed consent forms from the adolescents and their parents, in addition to verbal consent. Consent for publication All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Association of the GAS and SMD scores with the dYFAS‐C 2.0 and EES-C scores in groups by body weight status. dYFAS‐C 2.0, dimensional Yale Food Addiction Scale for Children 2.0; EES-C, Emotional Eating Scale Adapted for Use in Children and Adolescents; GAS, Game Addiction Scale; SMD, Social Media Disorder Scale. *Values are log-transformed variables
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