ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA UTILIZATION AND DIETARY HABITS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS AT ENUGU STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (ESUT), NIGERIA

Abstract

This study assessed the association between social media utilization and dietary habits among undergraduate students at Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Nigeria. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select 422 undergraduate students across the university's 14 faculties. Data were collected using a questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS Version 23.0. The results showed that 63% of the respondents were aged 20-24 years, 90.7% were single, 96.9% were Christians, and 9.0%, 21.9%, 42%, 20.9%, and 6.2% were in the 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 levels, respectively. All respondents use social media. WhatsApp (100%), Facebook (56.2%), Instagram (74.2%), Twitter (55.4%), and TikTok (90.2%) were the most used. (43.8 %), Moreover, (43.8%) usually spend 4-6 hours, or more than 6 hours, on social media, and 66.8% use it mostly late at night. 79.4% and 15.7% eat two and three meals, respectively, and 88.4% often skip meals. Busy with academics (27.6 %), lack of appetite (24.7 %), to lose weight (9.0 %), financial reasons (11.6 %), social media distraction (12.6 %), and other reasons (2.8 %) were the reasons they gave for skipping meals. 9.3% and 32.7% believe social media has a very positive and somewhat positive influence; 45.6% believe it has a neutral influence; 10.3% and 2.1% believe it has a somewhat negative and very negative influence on dietary choices. There was a statistically significant association between social media use and meal-skipping habits among undergraduates (χ² = 17.658; p = 0.001). Students with prolonged social media use were more likely to engage in unhealthy dietary behaviours, particularly meal skipping.