ArticleBMC public health2025
The mediating effects of smartphone addiction in the association between mental disorders and eating disorders: findings from a nationwide survey among Chinese youth.
Article in BMC public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Associations of Problematic Smartphone Use and Smartphone Screen Time With Eating Disorder Psychopathology in Non-Clinical Samples: A Systematic Review.JMIR mental health · 2026Pooled it
- The mediating effect of depression and eating behaviours on the relationship between smartphone addiction and obesity in adolescents.BMC psychology · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe prevalence of eating disorders among youth has increased in recent decades, with significant health consequences. Depression, loneliness and social anxiety are associated with eating disorders. However, the underlying mechanisms of these associations remain insufficiently explored. Considering the possibility that mental disorders increase the risk of smartphone addiction and that smartphone addiction is associated with eating disorder in adolescents, this study aims to investigate whether smartphone addiction mediates the association between mental disorders and eating disorders.
methodsBetween October and November 2023, we conducted an online survey among youth across 31 provincial-level administrative divisions (PLADs) in China. To align our sample composition with official statistics for each PLAD in terms of gender and school type, we applied sample weights to each respondent. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the mediating effects. To assess the consistency of these results, we also performed analyses for each gender and age group.
resultsAmong 10,000 weighted participants, 51.7% are male, with a median age of 16 years (IQR: 14-19). About 40% of youth experienced eating disorders. Smartphone addiction partially mediated the association between depression, loneliness, social anxiety, and eating disorders, contributing 24.69% (95% confidence interval: 20.60%-28.79%), 32.33% (95% CI: 27.53%-37.12%), and 37.35% (95% CI: 31.79%-42.91%) of the total effects, respectively. No heterogeneity was observed when analyses were stratified by gender and age group.
conclusionSmartphone addiction must be taken into account when designing strategies to prevent eating disorders in adolescents, which requires the cooperation of schools, parents and the government.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.