Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Feb 21, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 21, 2018 - Aug 3, 2018
Date Accepted: Jan 26, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Sociodemographic, Attitudinal, and Behavioral Correlates of Using Nutrition, Weight Loss, and Fitness Websites: An Online Survey
Background:
Nutrition, diet, and fitness are among the most searched health topics by internet users. Besides that, health-related internet users are diverse in their motivations and individual characteristics. However, little is known about the individual characteristics associated with the usage of nutrition, weight loss, and fitness websites.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to examine the individual factors associated with the usage of nutrition, weight loss, and fitness websites.
Methods:
An invitation to an online survey was published on 65 websites and discussion forums. In total, we employed data from 623 participants (aged 13 to 39 years, mean 24.11 [SD 5.26]). The measures included frequency of usage of nutrition, weight loss and fitness websites, excessive exercise, eating disorder symptomatology, internalization of the beauty ideal, weight status, and perceived online social support. Participants’ data were used as predictors in a base linear regression model.
Results:
The final model had an acceptable fit (χ210 =14.1; P=.17; root mean square error of approximation=0.03; comparative fit index=0.99; Tucker-Lewis index=0.99). Positive associations were found between usage of (1) nutrition websites and being female, higher levels of excessive exercise, and perceived online social support; (2) weight loss websites and excessive exercise, internalization, being female, eating disorder symptomatology, and being overweight or obese; and (3) fitness websites and levels of excessive exercise, internalization, and frequency of internet use.
Conclusions:
The results highlighted the importance of individual differences in the usage of health-related websites.
Citation
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.