DICA Study - internet and food addiction among Portuguese teenagers

In Portugal there was a significant increase of Internet users in recent years. In the year 2000, there were around 336,140 inhabitants in Portuguese mainland with access to Internet and in 2016, there were 3,190,251 inhabitants (PORDATA, 2018). A published study on Internet addiction in young Portuguese indicate an average of 20% of the sample with this dependence (Pontes & Patrão, 2014). Internet addiction has been receiving increasing attention, since the overuse of the Internet creates several risks to both physical and psychological well-being, influencing daily routine (e.g. fewer hours of sleep). Thus, the present study explores the association between food and internet addiction in adolescents, as well as its association with the practice of physical activity. The sampling will be multi-phased, stratified, proportional to the number of schools by NUT (nomenclature of territorial units for statistical purposes), systematic non-proportional in relation to the number of students from 7th to 12th grade (middle and high school). The study protocol, applied online, includes the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), the Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS), and the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), was delivered to students aged 12 to 18 years old. The study is descriptive, transversal and correlational. Results are expected to show in this Portuguese sample, as previous ones with samples from other countries, a positive association between internet and smartphone addiction, and food addiction. This study will allow the characterization of Portuguese adolescents in relation to two types of addictive behaviours with impact on both physical and psychological health, and will help to plan interventions that meet the problematic behaviours identified.