Facebook addiction and its impact on depression: a cross sectional study

Facebook has become a part of daily life for its users and therefore become a very significant factor of mental health. As the number of Facebook users increases exponentially, the problems related to immense use have become more evident and more frequent. Therefore, the study aimed to explore the impact of Facebook addiction on depression among its users.

An online-based questionnaire was used to collect data from 269 Facebook users of Bangladesh using convenient sampling technique. Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) scale was used to assess Facebook addiction and its impact on depression.Ordinal logistic was used to extract the significant variables associated with Facebook addiction and depression.

The result categorized the Facebook users into three categories as : normal (17%), problematic user (52%) and addicted (30.5%). Facebook users were suffering from mild (13.4%), minimal (15.6%), moderate (59.5%), and severe (11.5%) level of depression. Both Facebook addiction and depression were moderately correlated (0.701). Ordinal regression showed, gender \((\beta\) (95% CI) = 0.859 (0.223,1.495)), age ( \(\beta\) (95% CI) = -2.051(-3.789, -0.313)), residential area ( \(\beta\) (95% CI) = -0.858(-1.626, -0.09)), occupation ( \(\beta \left(95\text{\%} \text{C}\text{I}\right)=-0.494(-\text{1.547,0.559})\) ), time length of Facebook use ( \(\beta \left(95\text{\%} \text{C}\text{I}\right)=2.288\left(\text{0.324,2.251}\right))\) are the significant predictors of Facebook addiction. Wheras, relationship types and occupation are also responsible for depression.

The study showed large portion of facebook users of Bangladesh are suffering from depression. Authors suggest to arrange mental health campaign to promote bounded and legitimate use of facebook and therefore will accelerate the attaining rate of sustainable development goal related to the Bangladesh’s health status.