Youth health, gender, and social media: Mauritius as a glocal place

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate associations between social media use, self-reported health, dietary behaviours, and gender among young people living in Mauritius. For this cross-sectional study, questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 492 individuals (of which 64% were females) aged 14–29 year. A linear regression analysis investigating the associations between health problems and social media use, a number of dietary choices and behaviours, and gender was found to explain 49.9% of the variance in the prevalence of health problems, with social media use making the largest unique contribution (beta = 0.48). A MANOVA analysis found that there were significant gender differences in social media use, unhealthy food consumption, and self-reported health problems. This article concludes that the clash between gender, fast technological developments, and the influx of unhealthy foods in a glocal place has effects on young people through social media, and need to be monitored closely by youth and health policy-makers and researchers.