Assessment of University Students’ Suboptimal Health and Social Media Use: Implications for Health Regulatory Authorities

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the patterns of social media usage amongst university students at Ajman University (AU) and to explore health issues in relation to social media use. A cross-sectional community-based descriptive research design was conducted among AU students. A pre-designed, structured and validated questionnaire written in both English and Arabic was employed to collect data from the participants. The structured questionnaire was mainly composed of three sections: demographic and educational information, social media usage pattern information and poor health status. A total of 444 students participated in the study and completed the whole questionnaire. Over half the respondents (60.8%) reported using social media on more than 3 days during the past week; more than a quarter (28.6%) reported using social media for over 4 h each day; and almost half (44.1%) reported going on social media in the hour prior to going to bed. Overall, 390 (84.1%) respondents gave a higher poor health status score and 74 (15.9%) gave a lower one. Students who were active on Facebook tended to score higher in terms of poor health status than students who used other social media platforms. Moreover, those respondents who used social media for communication and enjoyment had higher poor health status scores. The findings of this study highlight the urgent need to address the increasing use of social media among adolescents—particularly university students—for example through educational interventions or campaigns aiming to encourage sensible social media practices.