JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Consumption of health and fitness-related social media content is a predominant behavior of teenage girls, putting them at risk for consuming unreliable health-related information.

Objective:

Using mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative), this study assessed health behavior attitudes and practices, as well as social media use, in adolescent females. Additionally, similar practices and behaviors of adults regularly interacting with this population were studied.

Methods:

Girls age 12-18 were recruited to complete a 28 item survey and participate in a 45-60-minute focus group. Adults who regularly interact with adolescent females, including parents, teachers, and healthcare professionals, were recruited from the local community and given a link to complete online consent and survey.

Results:

A total of 27 adolescent females participated in one of 9 focus group. Participants included 18 high school (age: 16.1 ± 1.3 years; BMI: 22.8 ± 3.6 kg/m2) and 9 middle school (age: 12.4 ± 0.7 years, BMI: 24.6 ± 8.7 kg/m2) girls. Eleven adults completed the online survey. Among teenagers, social media is used for communicating and connecting with friends, rather than a source of health information. While teenagers may see health-related content most aren't following health-related pages or sharing it themselves, and fewer are actively searching for it. They tend to trust information that comes from familiar sources, and participants report that they do not follow official news accounts. Adults considered modeling and discussing healthy behaviors important, and reportedly expect that teenagers do see some level of health-related, and especially fitness related, content on social media.

Conclusions:

These findings set a broad, informed, and meaningful foundation for any future research aimed at changing or influencing social media and its effects on health behavior.