Excessive texting via cellphone and use of social networking likes like Twitter or Facebook has been linked to several poor health behaviours in teens, according to a study presented at a recent conference.
Speaking to an audience at the 138th Annual Meeting and Exposition of the American Public Health Association in Denver, Colo., Dr. Scott Frank revealed higher use of communication technology can be linked to smoking, drinking, drug use and sexual activity.
Frank’s study examined students who were sending more than 120 text messages per day (hyper-texting) and spending more than three hours per day on social networking sites (hyper-networking). The cross-sectional survey involved more than 4,200 students from high schools, all of whom filled out surveys on youth risk behaviour.
The results showed 19.8 per cent teens were hyper-texting and 11.5 hyper-networking. Of the hyper-texting teens, Frank found they were 40 per cent more likely to try smoking, twice as likely to try alcohol, 43 per cent more likely to binge drink, 41 per cent more likely to have tried illegal drugs and 3.5 times more likely to have had sex, 90 per cent of whom had four or more sexual partners.
Of the hyper-networkers, they were 62 per cent more likely to try smoking, 79 per cent more likely to try drinking, 69 per cent more likely to binge drink, 84 per cent more likely to try illegal drugs and 69 per cent more likely to have had sex, 60 per cent of whom had four or more sexual partners.
Both groups were also linked to stress, suicidal thoughts, obesity, eating disorders, truancy, low self-esteem and lack of sleep.
A control group that did not send text messages or use social networking sites had significantly better health behaviours.
Individuals with severe acne are more likely to become depressed and attempt suicide compared to people without bad acne, but the elevated suicide risk is due to depression and not, as some have wondered, the popular acne medication isotretinoin, most commonly known as Accutane.
Published in the British Medical Journal, the authors argue the risk of suicide stems directly from the condition and its subsequent effects on self-esteem with no discernable link to acne medication.
A Swedish research team led by Dr. Anders Sundstrom started looking at suicide rates before, during and after isotretinoin was made available 25 years ago. After studying 5,756 patients, they found 128 individuals who had been hospitalized after attempting suicide. They noticed that from one to three years before isotretinoin treatment began, the rate of suicide attempts in patients with severe acne rose, peaking six months after treatment started. The research team believes this peak during treatment is a result of individuals frustrated that an improvement in physical appearance had little effect on a patient’s social life.
While the results don’t state with certainty that the drug is not linked to suicide, the research team called for continued psychological monitoring of patients, noting also the risk of suicide in patients taking isotretinoin was about one per 2,300 individuals.
