The Relationship of Technology Addiction with Obesity in Adolescents: The Sample of Ordu Province

This study was conducted to examine the status of technology addiction in adolescents, and its relationship with obesity. In this study, 564 adolescents (52.3% girls and 47.7% boys) participated. The research data were collected with a face-to-face questionnaire. This form includes questions about demographic information of adolescents, Social Media Addiction Scale for Adolescents (SMAS-A), Digital Gaming Disorder Scale for Adolescents (GADIS-A), and Children's Eating Attitudes Questionnaire (ChEAT). In addition, anthropometric measurements were taken by the researcher. The data obtained were analyzed with SPSS 27.0 program. A total of 564 adolescents with a mean age of 13.90±1.22 years participated in the study. According to WHO classification, 28.9% of the adolescents were found to be overweight/obese (p<0.001). While girls' SMAS-A and ChEAT scale scores were found to be higher than boys' (p<0.05), GADIS-A and its sub-factor scores were found to be statistically significantly lower than boys' (p<0.05). It was observed that 10.1 % of the adolescents played dangerous games, 29.4 % of them had significant psychological problems that needed to be investigated, and 5.9 % of them had a gaming disorder, with higher levels in boys. It was found that the body mass index-Z (BMI-Z) score increased with the increase in the GADIS-A scale and its sub-factor negative consequences (GADIS-ANC) scores in adolescents (p<0.05). According to the results, there is no clear relationship between social media addiction and obesity in adolescents within the scope of technology addiction, while the relationship between digital gaming disorder and obesity is worrying. Therefore, this study is expected to shed light on the prevalence of technology addiction and its relationship with obesity in adolescents and to develop strategies to reduce these negative conditions.