The Effect of the Way of Using Social Media on Health Promoting Behaviors and COVID-19-related Anxiety in Non-medical Students

Background: One of the problems of today's Iranian youth is how to use social media coincided with the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Objective: This study aimed to investigate the way of use of social media and its effect on health promoting behaviors and COVID-19-related anxiety in non-medical students. Methods: In this analytical study, participants were 307 non-medical students of Islamic Azad University of Tabriz Branch. Data collection tools were a demographic form, Corona Disease Anxiety Scale (CDAS) with two subscales of psychological and physical symptoms, and Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP) with six subscales of spiritual growth, health responsibility, interpersonal relations, stress management, physical activity, and nutrition which were completed online. The multivariate analysis of variance and a post-hoc test were used for data analysis. Findings: Of 307 participants, 256 were female (83%) and 51 were male (16.6%), with a mean age of 27 years. The HPLP components of spiritual growth (P=0.001), health responsibility (P=0.001), stress management (P=0.001), physical activity (P=0.002), and its overall score (P=0.001) had a significant relationship with the way of use of the Internet, and the group with a fun purpose had lower scores in these variables compared to other groups. Moreover, the CDAS component of psychological symptoms (P=0.007) and its overall score (P=0.03) had a significant relationship with the way of using social media; the group with a fun purpose reported higher CDAS score than the groups with scientific and general information acquiring purposes. Conclusion: The use of social media for fun negatively affects the students’ lifestyle in the current coronavirus outbreak and increases their COVID-19-related anxiety.