Reduction in Social Media Usage Produces Improvements in Physical Health and Wellbeing: An RCT

Reed, Phil; FOWKES, TEGAN; KHELA, MARIAM

doi:10.1007/s41347-023-00304-7

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Reduction in Social Media Usage Produces Improvements in Physical Health and Wellbeing: An RCT

Phil Reed

, TEGAN FOWKES, MARIAM KHELA

Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science, Volume: 8, Issue: 2, Pages: 140 - 147

Swansea University Authors: Phil Reed , TEGAN FOWKES, MARIAM KHELA

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DOI (Published version): 10.1007/s41347-023-00304-7

Abstract

Social media usage has increased over recent years and has been associated with negative effects on health and wellbeing. This study explored whether reducing smartphone screentime would improve health and wellbeing. Fifty students completed a battery of questionnaires regarding their health, immune...

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Published in:	Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science
ISSN:	2366-5963
Published:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2023
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62424
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first_indexed	2023-01-24T12:20:12Z
last_indexed	2023-02-14T04:16:24Z
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spelling	v2 62424 2023-01-24 Reduction in Social Media Usage Produces Improvements in Physical Health and Wellbeing: An RCT 100599ab189b514fdf99f9b4cb477a83 0000-0002-8157-0747 Phil Reed Phil Reed true false 62b73be2c22c061f78785295deb440a4 TEGAN FOWKES TEGAN FOWKES true false 70f4c805f0aeb3d518c0b2d836e0b2af MARIAM KHELA MARIAM KHELA true false 2023-01-24 HPS Social media usage has increased over recent years and has been associated with negative effects on health and wellbeing. This study explored whether reducing smartphone screentime would improve health and wellbeing. Fifty students completed a battery of questionnaires regarding their health, immune function, loneliness, sleep, anxiety, and depression. They were allocated randomly to groups either using smartphones as normal (No Change), reducing usage by 15 min per day (Reduce), or reducing use by 15 min and substituting another activity during this time (Reduce + Activity). After 3 months, they completed the same questionnaires again. There was unexpectedly low compliance with the Reduce + Activity (leisure substitution) intervention. In contrast, there was a significant reduction in screentime for the Reduce group compared to the other two groups. There was a significant improvement in the Reduce group in general health, immune function, loneliness, and depression compared to the other groups. These findings extend previous results from similar studies and suggest limiting screentime may be beneficial to health and wellbeing. Journal Article Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science 8 2 140 147 Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2366-5963 Social media usage reduction, health, wellbeing 8 2 2023 2023-02-08 10.1007/s41347-023-00304-7 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41347-023-00304-7 COLLEGE NANME Psychology COLLEGE CODE HPS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) Swansea University. 2023-06-27T16:53:04.4807890 2023-01-24T12:15:15.4927132 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Phil Reed 0000-0002-8157-0747 1 TEGAN FOWKES 2 MARIAM KHELA 3 62424__27893__aa9402fa492545eca91d7765b2cd3962.pdf 62424.VOR.pdf 2023-06-20T14:55:24.1188426 Output 655129 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2023. Distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0). true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Reduction in Social Media Usage Produces Improvements in Physical Health and Wellbeing: An RCT
spellingShingle	Reduction in Social Media Usage Produces Improvements in Physical Health and Wellbeing: An RCT Phil Reed TEGAN FOWKES MARIAM KHELA
title_short	Reduction in Social Media Usage Produces Improvements in Physical Health and Wellbeing: An RCT
title_full	Reduction in Social Media Usage Produces Improvements in Physical Health and Wellbeing: An RCT
title_fullStr	Reduction in Social Media Usage Produces Improvements in Physical Health and Wellbeing: An RCT
title_full_unstemmed	Reduction in Social Media Usage Produces Improvements in Physical Health and Wellbeing: An RCT
title_sort	Reduction in Social Media Usage Produces Improvements in Physical Health and Wellbeing: An RCT
author_id_str_mv	100599ab189b514fdf99f9b4cb477a83 62b73be2c22c061f78785295deb440a4 70f4c805f0aeb3d518c0b2d836e0b2af
author_id_fullname_str_mv	100599ab189b514fdf99f9b4cb477a83_*_Phil Reed 62b73be2c22c061f78785295deb440a4__TEGAN FOWKES 70f4c805f0aeb3d518c0b2d836e0b2af_**_MARIAM KHELA
author	Phil Reed TEGAN FOWKES MARIAM KHELA
author2	Phil Reed TEGAN FOWKES MARIAM KHELA
format	Journal article
container_title	Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science
container_volume	8
container_issue	2
container_start_page	140
publishDate	2023
institution	Swansea University
issn	2366-5963
doi_str_mv	10.1007/s41347-023-00304-7
publisher	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
college_str	Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id	facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title	Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
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hierarchy_parent_title	Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str	School of Psychology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Psychology
url	http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41347-023-00304-7
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description	Social media usage has increased over recent years and has been associated with negative effects on health and wellbeing. This study explored whether reducing smartphone screentime would improve health and wellbeing. Fifty students completed a battery of questionnaires regarding their health, immune function, loneliness, sleep, anxiety, and depression. They were allocated randomly to groups either using smartphones as normal (No Change), reducing usage by 15 min per day (Reduce), or reducing use by 15 min and substituting another activity during this time (Reduce + Activity). After 3 months, they completed the same questionnaires again. There was unexpectedly low compliance with the Reduce + Activity (leisure substitution) intervention. In contrast, there was a significant reduction in screentime for the Reduce group compared to the other two groups. There was a significant improvement in the Reduce group in general health, immune function, loneliness, and depression compared to the other groups. These findings extend previous results from similar studies and suggest limiting screentime may be beneficial to health and wellbeing.
published_date	2023-02-08T16:52:59Z
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Reduction in Social Media Usage Produces Improvements in Physical Health and Wellbeing: An RCT

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