Association Between Social Media Use and Self-reported Symptoms of Depression in US Adults

Importance: Some studies suggest that social media use is associated with risk for depression, particularly among children and young adults. Objective: To characterize the association between self-reported use of individual social media platforms, and worsening of depressive symptoms, among adults. Design: We included data from 13 waves of a non-probability internet survey conducted between May 2020 and May 2021 among individuals age 18 and older in the United States. We applied logistic regression with 5 or more point increase in PHQ-9 as outcome, and sociodemographic features, baseline PHQ-9, and use of each social media platform as independent variables, without reweighting. Participants: Survey respondents 18 and older. Main Outcome and Measure: PHQ-9 worsening by 5 points or more. Results: A total of 5395/8045 (67.1%) individuals with a PHQ-9<5 on initial survey completed a second PHQ-9. These respondents had mean age 55.82 years (SD 15.17); 3546 (65.7%) reported female gender, the remainder male; 329 (6.1%) were Asian, 570 (10.6%) Black, 256 (4.7%) Hispanic, 4118 (76.3%) White, and 122 (2.3%) Native American or Alaska Native, Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian, or Other. Among them, 482 (8.9%) reported 5 point or greater worsening at second survey. In fully-adjusted models for increase in symptoms, largest odds ratio associated with social media use was observed for Snapchat (aOR 1.53, 95% CI 1.19-1.96), Facebook (aOR 1.42, 1.10-1.81), and TikTok (aOR 1.39, 95% CI 1.03-1.87). Conclusions and Relevance: Among survey respondents who did not report depressive symptoms initially, social media use was associated with greater likelihood of subsequent increase in depressive symptoms after adjustment for sociodemographic features and news sources. These data cannot elucidate the nature of this relationship, but suggest the need for further study to understand the impact of social media use.