Evaluation of the effects of digital play addiction on eating attitudes

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of digital game addiction on the eating habits of adolescents aged between 9 and 15. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted as a survey of 972 middle school students. All data was evaluated with SPSS 22 software, and p<0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. RESULTS: The mean age of the students was 12.0±1.29. It was found that male students spent more time playing digital games than the females and the more they played, the higher the risk level of their Eating Habit Index became, and the difference for both groups was statistically significant (p<0.001). It was also determined that students from the houses with easy access to internet tend to play digital games for longer periods of time (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: As a result, children at adolescence age need to be taught which games, how long and when to play and be able to limit them instead of getting banned from playing. We are of the opinion that subjects of digital game addiction and appropriate and efficient use of computers need to be included in the curriculum within the scope of Media Literacy and Information Technologies and Software lessons in order to raise the children’s awareness.