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Health promotion and public health
Social media can adversely impact young peoples’ risk-taking behaviours
  1. Joanna Smith1,2,
  2. Bee O'Shea2
  1. 1Department of Nursing & Midwifery, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK
  2. 2Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield, UK
  1. Correspondence to Professor Joanna Smith, Department of Nursing & Midwifery, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK; Joanna.Smith{at}shu.ac.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebnurs-2024-103951

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    Commentary on: Purba AK, Thomson RM, Henery PM, et al. Social media use and health risk behaviours in young people: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ 2023;383:e073552.

    Implications for practice and research

    • Social media is part of young peoples’ (YP) everyday life including interacting with peers and sourcing information.

    • Multimodal methods such as online health literacy education and promoting positive health behaviours could contribute to safe social media use in YP.

    Context

    Worldwide, young people (YP) have a notable online presence with the majority of Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) users <35 years of age. WHO has recognised the potential role and impact of social media to improve health outcomes and the generation of misinformation.1 Although YP have a noticeable online presence, the impact on health behaviours remains unclear. The systematic review by Purba et al2 of social media use and YP’s health-associated risk-taking behaviours (eg, alcohol, drug, tobacco use) and unhealthy lifestyle choices (eg, exercise, diet, gambling, sexual risk taking) …

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @josmith175

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.