Attitudes towards selfie-taking and its relation to body dysmorphic disorder among pre-clinical medical students

Abstract

Selfies are self-taken images of people that can reflect human feelings and can disseminate different messages. It is thought that technology has played a big part in the evolution of what is termed nowadays “selfie addiction”. The goal of this study is to examine the prevalence and correlation of Selfie Addiction and Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) using two scales – the Psychometric scale for selfie addiction and the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Questionnaire (BDDQ). This study examines these two phenomena amongst preclinical medical students of King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.This was across-sectional research, which involved 317 preclinical medical students from King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The psychometric scale for selfie addiction is a Likert Scale with ten statements, while the BDDQ constitutes of four statements. The data was collected between 16/2/2021 and 31/10/2021. Ethical approval and informed consent were obtained at the beginning of the study.There were a total of 317 responses. The overall prevalence of selfie addiction was 13.88% with females having higher rates than males (22.5% versus 11.4%), and more senior students having a higher prevalence than their junior colleagues (19.5% versus 7.8%). Also, being single was associated with higher scores of (14.0%) compared to the married group (0%). The average score for selfie addiction was 18.66 which is below the cutoff score of 30. The prevalence of BDD was (5.67%), and the average score of BDDQ was 1.03 with a range of 0-4 and standard deviation of 1.3. There was no significant correlation between BDD and demographic variables. There was a very weak correlation between BDD and selfie addiction; the Pearson Correlation value was (r = 0.144, p= 0.01). However, a Chi square comparing those who were addicted to selfies versus not (based on the cutoff score) showed a significant difference in BDD scores. (p=0.044) indicating possible correlation. Results show that the prevalence of selfie addiction was 13.88% which seems significant. BDD had a lower prevalence of 5.67%. Factors related to higher rates of selfie addiction included being a more senior student, being single and female. In contrast, these demographic factors did not seem to be related to BDD. Finally, there was a weak correlation between BDD and selfie addiction. More research is needed to study the correlation between the two domains in different populations.