Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Feb 6, 2023
Date Accepted: Sep 27, 2023
Social media use and its concurrent and subsequent relation to a biological marker of inflammation: A short-term longitudinal investigation
ABSTRACT
Background:
Although many studies have examined the impact of social media use on mental health, little is known about the association of social media use with health-relevant biomarkers.
Objective:
Addressing this gap, we conducted a longitudinal study examining the link between social media use and C-reactive protein (CRP), a biological marker of systemic inflammation predictive of chronic diseases and mortality.
Methods:
We measured 171 college students’ amount of social media use objectively via Screen Time application and collected blood samples at baseline and four weeks later.
Results:
Social media use was associated with elevated CRP cross-sectionally. Critically, more social media use at baseline predicted increased CRP four weeks later, suggesting that increased social media use led to heightened inflammation during that period.
Conclusions:
Although more research is needed to understand why social media use led to higher inflammation, the association between objective social media use and a marker of a biological process critical to physical health presents an intriguing opportunity for future research on social media effects.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
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.