Association between social media use and health promotion among individuals with depression and anxiety: Insights from the 2017–2020 Health Information National Trends Survey

Abstract

Introduction

Individuals with mental disorders have elevated risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and as a result, experience earlier mortality than the general population. Yet, evidence-based strategies and interventions to promote physical and cardiometabolic health in mental health contexts remains limited. Social media has emerged as a promising and readily affordable tool to expand the reach of mental health services, including the delivery of behavioral and physical health interventions. Despite its widespread availability, the potential for social media use to support positive lifestyle behaviors in mental health contexts remains relatively unexplored. We examined the potential for using social media tools for health promotion by people with anxiety or depression.

Methods

Using cross-sectional data from the 2017–2020 edition of the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), we evaluated differences between individuals with self-reported history of diagnosed depression/anxiety and the general population concerning health-related usage of social media platforms. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to evaluate the association between social media usage and positive health behaviors.

Results

Overall, individuals with mental disorders were more likely than the general population to engage in health-related social media usage. Those with anxiety or depression who engaged in health-related social media usage were significantly more likely to; report intentions to quit smoking (OR 3.13, 95% CI 1.12 – 8.70; p = 0.029) endorse past 12-month attempts at smoking cessation (OR 3.41, 95% CI 1.32 –8.82; p = 0.012) and were more likely to meet national recommendation for weekly strength training (OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.11 – 2.00; p = 0.008).

Conclusions

People with anxiety or depression use social media for health purposes at rates higher than the general population. Our findings suggest that these tools can reach many people with mental disorders and offer a novel window of opportunity to promote physical health and positive lifestyle behavior change in this highly vulnerable population.