Smartphone Addiction May Be Linked to Higher Obesity Risk in Children and Adolescents

Dr. Rakesh Kumar Prasad, Head, Department of Endocrinology, Fortis Hospital Noida

Higher smartphone addiction risk and longer smartphone use were associated with greater odds of obesity during four years of follow-up.

A study published in Psychology, Health & Medicine examined the long-term association between smartphone addiction and obesity among children and adolescents using four years of data from the Korean Children and Youth Survey (2018–2021). The study included 2,607 fourth-grade elementary school students and 2,590 first-grade middle school students at baseline, with mean ages of 11.3 ± 0.3 and 14.3 ± 0.3 years, respectively. Overall, 2,718 participants (52.3%) were boys.

Obesity was defined as a body mass index (BMI) z-score at or above the 95th percentile as per the 2017 Korean National Growth Charts. During the four-year follow-up, the prevalence of obesity ranged from 6.9% to 8.4%, while the prevalence of being at high risk of smartphone addiction ranged from 2.1% to 4.8%.

Researchers used a logistic generalized estimating equation (GEE) to examine the association between smartphone use, smartphone addiction, and obesity.

The GEE analysis showed that children in the potential-risk group for smartphone addiction had 16% higher odds of obesity than those in the normal group, even after considering smartphone use time. The high-risk group also had higher odds of obesity, but the difference was not statistically significant. Children who used smartphones for more than 3 hours had 1.37 times higher odds of obesity than those who used them for less than 1 hour.

Overall, higher smartphone addiction risk and longer smartphone use were associated with higher odds of obesity among children and adolescents in this study.

(Reference: Gill E, Chung W. The effect of smartphone addiction on obesity in children and adolescents. Psychology, Health & Medicine. 2026 Jul 3;31(6):1361-75.)