CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 46Eating Disorders and BehaviorsImpact of Technology on AdolescentsNutrition, Health and Food Behavior

Internet and smartphone application usage in eating disorders: A descriptive study in Singapore.

Tan, Tina, Kuek, Angeline, Goh, Shih Ee, Lee, Ee Lian, Kwok, Victor·2016·Asian Journal of Psychiatry
DOI 10.1016/j.ajp.2015.11.007
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Eating disorders are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The Internet is a popular medium for individuals with eating disorders to discuss and reinforce their affliction. However, the available literature on Internet usage and eating disorders is scarce, especially in the area of social media and smartphone application ("app") usage. This study looked at the Internet and smartphone app usage patterns of participants who presented with an eating disorder in Singapore, and whether it corresponded to severity of illness. Individuals who presented to the Eating Disorders clinic at the Singapore General Hospital completed a self-reported questionnaire on Internet and app usage. They also completed the EDE-Q, EAT-26 and CIA 3.0. 55 participants completed the study. 41.8% had anorexia nervosa, 34.5% had bulimia nervosa, and 9.1% were ED-NOS. 41.8% felt that apps helped to perpetuate their illness while 32.7% felt that the apps were helpful for recovery. Overall, any smartphone application usage was associated with younger age and greater eating disorder psychopathology and psychosocial impairment. While 30.9% had encountered eating disorder-related content on Facebook, only 12.7% visited Facebook groups related to eating disorders. For YouTube, "Cooking and Food" and "Beauty and Fashion" videos were among the top 3 types of videos that participants watched. In conclusion, Internet and smartphone app usage is significant, and they are associated with greater severity of illness. It is necessary to include interventions in this aspect as part of treatment of eating disorders.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.ajp.2015.11.007

Cites

33 of 33 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Five studies highlighted that high-risk individuals with elevated eating disorder scores or a pre-existing eating disorder are more inclined to seek out damaging content on social media, may be more susceptible to mediating factors, and are thus at heightened risk of further clinical / subclinical eating disorders.

    “Five studies highlighted that high-risk individuals with elevated eating disorder scores or a pre-existing eating disorder are more inclined to seek out damaging content on social media (such as thinspiration or weight loss). They may be more susceptible to mediating factors (internalisation and comparison) and are thus at heightened risk of further clinical / subclinical eating disorders [78, 80,”

    From The social media diet: A scoping review to investigate the association between social media, body image and eating disorders amongst young people (2023) · cites this paper as [80]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Tan, T., Kuek, A., Goh, S. E., Lee, E. L., & Kwok, V.
Affiliations
  • Singapore General Hospital (SG)
  • SingHealth (SG)
Corresponding author
Kwok, Victor
ORCID
Venue
Asian Journal of Psychiatry
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2016-02
Volume
19
Pages
50-55
ISSN
1876-2018 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.ajp.2015.11.007
OpenAlex
W2198002466
Cited by
46
References
33
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 3 · 2013: 1
FWCI
4.13
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • Asian Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
Keywords
eating disorders, mobile application, internet use, social media, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, eating disorder severity, Facebook, YouTube, online content, psychosocial impairment, eating disorder treatment
MeSH terms
Smartphone, Adolescent, Adult, Feeding and Eating Disorders, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Surveys and Questionnaires, Severity of Illness Index, Singapore, Internet, Young Adult

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review