THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA (INSTAGRAM) AND EATING BEHAVIOUR AMONG INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA KUANTAN STUDENTS

Abstract

Introduction: University students are susceptible to disordered eating behavior, and social media plays a major role in contributing to the condition. Instagram has become increasingly popular among the youths and is also widely used for sharing pictures of food. More than 10% of pictures on the platform is food-related. Priming theory describes the effect on the way people react to subsequent stimuli by an external stimulus thus, people who view the food pictures are most likely to consume it. In this research, the concern is addressed by assessing the association between Instagram and external, restrained and emotional eating behaviour. Methods: A cross-sectional quantitative research study was performed on undergraduate students of IIUM Kuantan (n=98; 36.7% male; 63.3% female). Sociodemographic and anthropometric measurements of the students were obtained. Self-reported frequency of food-based accounts followed by respondents on Instagram was obtained and external, restrained and emotional eating were assessed by using Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ).  Results: There was no significant association between the frequency of food-based accounts followed by students on Instagram with anthropometric measurements, sociodemographic and eating behaviour (p > 0.05) among IIUMK students. The findings suggested that IIUMK students exhibited restrained and external eating with mean score of 25.0 (SD = 10.2) and 29.2 (SD = 5.7) respectively. On the other hand, they did not exhibit emotional eating with mean score of 29.5 (SD = 8.4) as it did not exceed the 50% cut-off point of Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) score. Conclusion: This study has provided insights on eating behaviour of IIUMK students, revealing that the students with disordered eating behaviour are affected by other factors besides visual attention on social media.

KEYWORDS:  Eating behavior, Diet, Disordered eating, External eating, Restrained eating, Emotional eating, Instagram, Social media