Social Network Sites’ Effects on Nursing Students’ Physical and Psychological Health Behaviors

Abstract

Background: Social media are online communities where people can share ideas and interests and make new friends. It is a technology used to show off personal creativity or to share information, ideas, business interests, or knowledge between different groups through different forms of communication, and everyone knows that this information is important, even decision-makers. Objectives: To assess the influence of social media sites on physical and psychological health behaviors among college students. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of the Technical Nursing/Technical Institute-Suwaira in Middle Technical University, Wasit, Iraq. The sampling technique to select students was non-probability (convenience sample). The data collection was through the direct interview technique by the researcher with each participant for a period from 28th March 2022 to 15th October 2022. The data analysis approaches were used in order to analyze and assess the results of the study under the application of the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 25. Results: Three-quarters of the 300 participants were between the ages of 18 and 22, with 68.3% being female. Facebook was the most popular social media site used by the participants. The answer No was the most Student’s response about physical and psychological health and for the most of the items related to physical health, and less than half of their assessment were affected. There was a highly statistically significant association between the items related to physical and psychological health and gender, marital status, and economic status. Conclusion: This study showed that although social media is essential for students in their studies, at the same time it might have some physical and psycho©logical effects on the health of students.