The Relationship between Health- and Fitness-Related Social Media Use and Consumers' Disordered Eating

Health-related services shared through social media are enjoying considerable growth, particularly among young people, yet they have potentially detrimental outcomes for consumer well-being. This research undertakes an examination of literature pertaining to health-related social media use in an effort to explore its relationship with disordered eating in particular. In line with objectification theory, Study 1 affirms that viewing images and videos posted on health-related social media is positively associated with the level of people’s disordered eating. Furthermore, Study 2 clarifies that this relationship is mediated, as expected, by social physique anxiety, and it also is unexpectedly moderated by general social media use. That is, the relationship between viewing health-related images and videos and disordered eating is stronger among consumers who exhibit low and medium social media use rather than those with high social media use. The implications of these findings are relevant for both health-related service research and public policy.