Instagram use is linked to increased symptoms of orthorexia nervosa

Abstract

PurposeSocial media use is ever increasing amongst young adults and has previously been shown to have negative effects on body image, depression, social comparison, and disordered eating. One eating disorder of interest in this context is orthorexia nervosa, an obsession with eating healthily. High orthorexia nervosa prevalence has been found in populations who take an active interest in their health and body and is frequently comorbid with anorexia nervosa. Here, we investigate links between social media use, in particularly Instagram and orthorexia nervosa symptoms.MethodsWe conducted an online survey of social media users (N = 680) following health food accounts. We assessed their social media use, eating behaviours, and orthorexia nervosa symptoms using the ORTO-15 inventory.ResultsHigher Instagram use was associated with a greater tendency towards orthorexia nervosa, with no other social media channel having this effect. In exploratory analyses Twitter showed a small positive association with orthorexia symptoms. BMI and age had no association with orthorexia nervosa. The prevalence of orthorexia nervosa among the study population was 49%, which is significantly higher than the general population (<1%).ConclusionsOur results suggest that the healthy eating community on Instagram has a high prevalence of orthorexia symptoms, with higher Instagram use being linked to increased symptoms. These findings highlight the implications social media can have on psychological wellbeing, and the influence social media ‘celebrities’ may have over hundreds of thousands of individuals. These results may also have clinical implications for eating disorder development and recovery.

#foodie: Implications of interacting with social media for memory

“…Support for the idea that memory for food might be linked with disordered eating comes from findings of attentional processing differences for food-related stimuli in persons with an eating disorder (Giel et al, 2011;Nikendei et al, 2008;Shafran et al, 2007;Stormark & Torkildsen, 2004) and a link between hunger/satiation and attentional processing of food-related stimuli (Mogg, Bradley, Hyare, & Sui, 1997;Placanica, Faunce, & Job, 2002;Stockburger, Schmälzle, Flaisch, Bublatzky, & Schupp, 2009). These findings, along with evidence of a relationship between the use of media and disordered eating habits (Harrison & Cantor, 1997;Turner & Lefevre, 2017; also see Mejova et al, 2015), led to the predictions (1) that there would be stable individual differences in memory for food (vs. nonfood) images and (2) that these individual differences would be related to a measure of disordered eating behavior.…”

“…Potentially relevant to this question are cognitive processes underlying disordered eating, phenomena that are thought to be complex and multidimensional, being shaped by the external environment and social culture (Culbert, Racine, & Klump, 2015;Levine, Smolak, & Hayden, 1994;Stevenson, Doherty, Barnett, Muldoon, & Trew, 2007). Indeed, some prior work indicates a relationship between the use of media and disordered eating habits (Harrison & Cantor, 1997;Turner & Lefevre, 2017; also see Mejova, Hamed Haddadi, Anastasios Noulas, & Ingmar Weber, 2015). Here, we examined the cognitive processes that occur when engaging with social media content on Instagram. A notable feature of the Instagram platform is that instead of simply browsing through the content, users can also add comments to the images they see (and see others' comments as well).…”

“…Aalbers, McNally, Heeren, Wit, & Fried, 2019). Of note is that platforms such as Instagram are used to share information relevant to eating disorder behavior (see Chancellor, Pater, Clear, Gilbert, & De Choudhury, 2016), and use of Instagram in particular has been associated with higher rates of orthorexia nervosa (an obsession with eating healthy; Turner & Lefevre, 2017). If individuals who experience disordered eating interact with social media on a daily basis and process social media differently on the basis of their symptomology, this could have major implications for how social media platforms affect an already vulnerable population.…”

Media, Technology Use, and Attitudes: Associations With Physical and Mental Well‐Being in Youth With Implications for Evidence‐Based Practice

“…This might in turn explain the higher SCOFF scores in social media users. In fact, more frequent Facebook use was found to be associated with greater disordered eating in women (Mabe et al., ), and Instagram use was linked to increased symptoms of orthorexia nervosa (Turner & Lefevre, ). Together these results emphasize the important aspect of appearance comparison in social media images, which may trigger or worsen BID and EDs.…”

The effects of health frame and target relevance in appearance social comparisons

“…Although many of the actions exhibited by individuals with fitspiration accounts are perceived as positive behaviors by consumers (Nevin & Vartanian, ), often they are documented signs of Orthorexia nervosa, a pathological obsession with nutrition that is characterized by a restrictive diet, ritualistic eating patterns and avoidance of foods perceived as low‐quality or unhealthy (Koven & Abry, ). Instagram use is positively associated with Orthorexic tendencies and individuals who follow fitness and health‐oriented accounts on social media are more likely to endorse the ideal female body type and report intentions to use extreme weight loss behaviors (Lewallen & Behm‐Morawitz, ; Turner & Lefevre, ). The present research seeks to examine whether framing these types of extreme eating and exercise behaviors as healthy (i.e., how these behaviors are perceived in a fitspiration context) or unhealthy (i.e., how they might be perceived by educated clinicians) changes how people respond to social comparison information from images of targets who represent the ideal body.…”