scholarly journals Mobile Phones: Vital Addiction or Lethal Addiction? Mobile Phone Usage Patterns and Assessment of Mobile Addiction among Undergraduate Medical Students in Telangana, India

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Vinay Jahagirdar ◽  
Kaanthi Rama ◽  
Pranavi Soppari ◽  
M. Vijay Kumar

Background. Increased mobile phone usage among undergraduate medical students causes a detrimental effect on their health. The main focus of this study is to determine the pattern of mobile phone usage among undergraduate medical students in Hyderabad, India, and the detrimental effect on their health due to excess mobile use. Materials and Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students from various medical colleges in Hyderabad, India, from September 2020 to January 2021. Data were collected from 626 respondents using a semistructured, pretested questionnaire. Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV) was used to assess the risk of smartphone addiction. Microsoft Excel and SAS were employed to analyze the data. Associations were examined using Fisher’s exact test. Results. 100% of the respondents were using mobiles, with 83.2% spending more than 4 hours on them. Only 22% reported that no mobile use during classes. Half (51.6%) admitted to keeping their mobiles close by while sleeping. 84.3% used social networking apps via their mobiles. Common symptoms arising from prolonged mobile usage included eye strain (67.9%), blurred vision (31.4%), and numbness or tingling in palms (30.9%). 52.70% of the respondents were at high risk of mobile addiction according to SAS-SV. Screen time more than 4 hours was associated with high risk of mobile addiction ( p < 0.0001 ). Significant association was found between high risk of mobile addiction and eye strain ( p < 0.0001 ), blurry vision ( p = 0.0115 ), numbness/tingling in palms ( p < 0.0001 ), and heat/tingling in the auditory area ( p < 0.0001 ). Conclusion. The study shows the alarming rate of risk of smartphone addiction among medical students. Students can be encouraged to assess their mobile addiction status and become aware of the issue. More research may be performed to develop standardized tools for early identification of mobile addiction and appropriate therapies for its rectification.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sirisa Karki ◽  
Jaya Prasad Singh ◽  
Gita Paudel ◽  
Sushma Khatiwada ◽  
Sameer Timilsina

Abstract Introduction: Increasing smartphone use among adolescents in todays’ world has made this handy device an indispensable electronic tool, however, it comes at a price of problematic overuse or addiction. We aim to investigate the prevalence of smartphone addiction among undergraduate medical students and explore its association with various demographic and personal factors. Methods: A pool of 250 undergraduate students completed a survey composed of socio-demographics information, smartphone-use related variables and 10-point Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version in February 2019. Results: Smartphone addiction among medical students was estimated at around 36.8% with higher percentage of male smartphone addicts. Phubbing was reported by 37.6% participants with more than 60% reporting overuse. Statistically significant association was observed between smartphone addiction and gender and overuse. Self-acknowledgement of addiction was found to be the biggest predictor of smartphone addiction. Conclusion: This study provides preliminary insights into smartphone use, smartphone addiction and various factors predicting smartphone addiction among early undergraduate medical students from Nepal, which should be extended in future studies. Education policymakers and educators need to develop some strategies encouraging student’s smartphone utilization to enhance academic performance. Keywords: smartphone; addiction; undergraduate; medical.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sirisa Karki ◽  
Sameer Timilsina ◽  
Jaya Prasad Singh

Abstract Introduction Increasing smartphone use among adolescents in todays’ world has made this handy device an indispensable electronic tool, however, it comes at a price of problematic overuse or addiction. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of smartphone addiction among undergraduate medical students and explore its association with various demographic and personal factors.Methods A pool of 250 undergraduate students enrolled at Chitwan Medical College were included in this cross-sectional study conducted between August to November 2018. A preformed demographic porforma along with 10-point Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version was used to collect participant information.Results Smartphone addiction among medical students was estimated at around 36.8% with higher percentage of male smartphone addicts. Prevalence rates of smartphone related tolerance was reported in 42.8% participants, 37.6% reported phubbing and 60.8% participants reported overuse. Statistically significant association was observed between smartphone addiction and gender, self-acknowledgement of addiction and overuse.Conclusion This study provides preliminary insights into smartphone use, smartphone addiction and various factors predicting smartphone addiction among early undergraduate medical students from Nepal, which should be extended in future studies. Some fruitful programs and strategies to promote students’ knowledge and awareness about using smartphone seems to be the need of the hour.


Author(s):  
Neha Chaudhary ◽  
Shradha Mishra ◽  
Manish Kumar ◽  
Yamini Sharma ◽  
Shamshad Ahmad

Introduction: Inspite of the fact that the medical students have a greater awareness about a healthy lifestyle; their academic stress to perform well may poorly affect their pattern of physical activity and thus, compromise their overall health. Aim: To assess the level of physical activity among undergraduate medical students studying in various institutions across the state of Bihar and to evaluate the Metabolic Equivalent Task (MET) score so as to measure the intensity of physical activity performed by the participants. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among the undergraduate students, studying in different medical colleges across Bihar, India. An Online Google Form was created using a short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). The collected data was analysed using Stata (Version 13) software. Results were presented as frequencies, mean and standard deviation. Chi-square test was applied to test for significant association at 0.05 level of significance. To identify the predictors of physical activity, multiple logistic regression analysis of the data was done. Results: A total of 1200 students participated in the study. Among these, 64.3% were males and 35.7% were females. More than half of the participants (57.6%) were aged <21 years. Majority of the participants (67.7%) had normal weight followed by overweight/obese (22.8%). Approximately, half of the participants (54.4%) reported availability of gym in their campus and only 26.7% of the participants were following regular routine of physical exercise. Maximum students under the study were residing in the hostel (89.4%); who were reaching college mainly by walking (74.8%), {OR=17.5 (12.9-23.5)}. On multivariate analysis; Body Mass Index (BMI), age, having an availability of gym in the campus and following a regular routine of physical exercise were found to be significant predictors of physical activity. Conclusion: In present study, the majority were sufficiently physically active. However, the low physical activity was observed among the overweight/obese participants is a distressing fact which may reflect the need to integrate the physical education electives in the curriculum


Author(s):  
Mahesh D. Kurugodiyavar ◽  
Sushma H. R. ◽  
Maneesha Godbole ◽  
Manjunath S. Nekar

Background: Smartphone with its various functionalities has become an essential part of our daily activities and its use has been increasing. This has raised concern about its overuse and addiction especially in students. It is known that poor sleep is very common among medical students; there are many studies on sleep quality and its determinants in medical students but very few relating sleep quality and smartphone addiction. The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between smartphone use severity and sleep quality among medical students of KIMS, Hubballi. Methods: A cross‑sectional study on sample of 240 undergraduate medical students KIMS, Hubballi was conducted. Students were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire, Smart phone addiction scale (SAS) and Pittsburgh sleep quality inventory (PSQI). SAS score and PSQI scores were co-related. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to identify the variables independently associated with level of sleep quality. Results: Out of 240 subjects 117 (48.75%) were poor sleepers & 123 (51.25%) were good sleepers according to PSQI global sleep score. According to SAS score 123 (51.2%) were low users and 117 (48.75%) were high users of Smart phone. The mean (SD) PSQI global score was 4.8 (2.49) and mean (SD) SAS score was 102.93 (22.13). There was positive correlation between SAS score & PSQI score (r=0.343, p<0.001). Gender (β=0.141, p=0.021) & SAS score (β=0.292, p<0.001) were the significant predictors of global PSQI score. Conclusions: This study concludes that in medical students smartphone addiction affects sleep quality significantly and males are particularly more at risk of having poor sleep quality due to excessive smartphone use.  


Author(s):  
Shiny George ◽  
Namitha Saif ◽  
Biju Baby Joseph

Background: Mobile phones have become an essential part of life. It has become an important accessory carried by everybody not only because they make it easy to keep in touch with people but because of the various facilities they offer especially the internet. The charm of mobile phone is more among young generation and the increasing use may result in dependence. Aim was to study the usage pattern and dependence of mobile phones among medical students.Methods: A cross sectional study conducted among 200 medical students and studied the pattern of usage of mobile phones, common problems encountered and its dependence using a questionnaire. Statistical analysis done using chi square test and a p value of <0.05 is taken as significant.Results: In the present study 35% of the students were frequent users that is they used for >30 minutes per day. Female students were talking more to their parents and male students to their friends followed by their lovers. 49 of them never used to attend the call while driving and 58 of them used to stop the vehicle and attend the call. (p=0.002) Mobile phone dependence was also found to be increased which is evident from ringxiety experienced by 68 students (34%) and waking up from sleep to check the mobile for call or message by 62 students(p=0.000). Out of 68 students with ringxiety, 69% were males and 37% were females (p=0.040). 82 participants (41%) commented that life without mobile will be boring and 50 (25%) said that they will feel alone or unsafe (p=0.001).Conclusions: As dependence is increasing with the excessive use of mobile phones, some interventions are required to motivate the youth against it. 


Author(s):  
Sérgio Cunha Trindade Júnior ◽  
Luis Fernando Freitas de Sousa ◽  
Luciana Brandão Carreira

Abstract: Introduction: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a common pathology in modern life. Furthermore, Brazil ranks among one of the countries in Latin America with the highest increase in the number of suicides. Objective: The goal of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of GAD and suicide risk and their association in medical students from Belém - PA. Methods: The observational, cross-sectional and quantitative study included undergraduate medical students attending the 1st, 3rd and 5th years of Universidade do Estado do Pará as subjects of this research, totaling 153 students. It used a protocol created by the authors and the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. The software BioEstat® 5.3 was used to perform the statistical analysis. Results: 52 (32,7%) of the 159 students have GAD and 48 (30,2%) pose a suicide risk, of which 18 have a mild risk (11,3%), 17 a moderate risk (10,7%) and 13 a high risk (8,2%). 46,7% and 50% of the 1st and 3rd-year students, respectively, have higher risk of suicide, which could be related to the competition faced during the University admission process and also during the first years of the clinical cycle. Of the 5th year students who pose a suicide risk, only 21,7% have high risk. Conclusion: It can be observed that GAD and suicide risk show high prevalence among medical students, which has to be investigated and treated aiming to reduce the impacts of those disorders on health professionals and students.


Author(s):  
Prosenjit Ghosh ◽  
Anweshan Ghosh ◽  
Madhurima Khasnabis

Background: Smartphone use has become pervasive in everyday lives of university students. Excessive smartphone use leads to various physical problems, as well as psychological issues like reduced academic achievement, social interactions, and leading to relationship problems. Depression, loneliness and anxiety have emerged as important predictors of smartphone addiction. Social anxiety also known as social phobia is an intense anxiety or fear of being negatively judged or rejected in a socially demanding situation. This may lead to individuals avoiding face-to-face interaction and increasingly engaging in online interaction. Medical post-graduate students are more vulnerable to stress due to the demanding nature of their course as well as extensive smartphone users. Objectives of the study were to see the socio-demographic distribution of the post-graduate medical students, to assess the pattern of smart phone use and prevalence of smartphone addiction in the post-graduate medical students, to see the association of smartphone addiction with pattern of use and to see the association of smartphone addiction with social phobia among the study participantsMethods: This study was cross-sectional non-interventional study. Self-reported questionnaires were used to collect information from 70 postgraduate medical students. The data was collected the smartphone addiction scale-short version and Liebowitz social anxiety scale.  The data obtained was analysed using SPSS version 23.Results: Majority of the participants were female, in the age group 26-30 years, single, belonging to upper middle class of an urban locality, with no past history of psychiatric illness. Most common functionality was social networking. The prevalence of smartphone addiction was 28.6% with similar gender predisposition. 37.1% of the study participants were found to have social phobia.Conclusions: No association was found between smartphone addiction and social phobia. The smartphone addiction was found to have significant association with pattern of use and duration of use (p<0.05).


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manish Upreti ◽  
Ambika Dawadi

Abstract BACKGROUND: The Nepal Government imposed two national-level lockdowns to curtail the spread of coronavirus. Schools, colleges, and universities were briefly shut leading students to stay indoors. Change in daily routine, online education and plenty of free time has ultimately led to an increase in use of electronic gadgets like smartphones, laptops, etc. There have not been enough studies to evaluate the usage pattern of electronic gadgets and sleep quality among undergraduate medical students of Nepal before and during the COVID-19 lockdown. Our study aims to evaluate the usage pattern of electronic gadgets and sleep quality among undergraduate medical students before and during the COVID-19 lockdown in Nepal.METHODOLOGY: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 208 undergraduate medical students of Lumbini Medical College, Tansen, Palpa. Participants were requested to fill up an online questionnaire circulated via Viber and Facebook messenger. Gadget usage pattern and sleep quality before and during COVID-19 lockdown were evaluated using Smartphone addiction score-short version (SAS-SV) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) respectively.RESULTS: Of 208 responses which met the inclusion criteria, smartphone addiction was seen 94 (46.30%) respondents with higher number of male addicts (27.59%). Mean time spent in electronic gadgets raised significantly during lockdown compared to pre-COVID phase. 99 (48.77%) respondents had impaired sleep according to PSQI global sleep score. Significant relation was present between most of the components of PSQI with addicts and non-addicts.CONCLUSION: This study is merely a partial snapshot of the present scenario and provides preliminary understanding on smartphone use pattern and sleep quality among medical students from Nepal. It is critical to decrease total screen time and promote sleep quality for the betterment of physical and mental health of the future health care professionals.


Author(s):  
Vanita V. Myakal ◽  
Vinod L. Vedpathak

Background: Nomophobia literally means ‘no mobile phobia’ that is the fear of being out of mobile phone contact. People experience symptoms of withdrawal when they are away from mobile phones. To address this problem and create awareness among medical students the present study was planned. Objectives of this study were 1)To assess prevalence of nomophobia among medical students 2) To assess pattern of mobile phone usage. 3) To know health related consequences of nomophobiaMethods: This college based cross sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students of SRTR Government Medical College, Ambajogai. All undergraduate students from 1st MBBS to final MBBS were enrolled in the study. Data was collected from a total of 346 medical students with a predesigned pretested questionnaire. “test of mobile phone dependence” (TMD Brief) was used to assess nomophobia. TMD brief scale was designed and validated by Chóliz et al. According to scores, medical students scoring 30-60 were labeled as having nomophobia. Data was analyzed using Epi info 7 Software.Results: The prevalence of nomophobia was 71.39%, which was more among males (73%) compared to females (69.94%). ‘Disturbance of sleep’ (41.33%) was most common symptom experienced due to mobile phone dependence. Study participants belonging to nuclear family, 3rd year MBBS batch, age group of 20-22 years and students spending Rs. >400/month on mobile phones were significantly associated with nomophobia.Conclusions: The present study has reported prevalence of nomophobia as 71.39% among undergraduate medical students which is very high. Now a day’s nomophobia is an alarming issue and it should be addressed on priority basis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (209) ◽  
pp. 522-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kriti Thapa ◽  
Rita Pokharel ◽  
Rambha Sigdel ◽  
Surya Prasad Rimal

  Introduction: The charm of mobile phone is more among young generation and the increasing use can lead to various harmful effects and may result in dependence. The objective of the study is to evaluate the pattern of mobile phone use among medical students. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted on a total of 229 medical students aged between 18 and 25 years who were using mobile phones for more than 1 year by using simple random sampling technique. Students were requested to complete a pre-tested self-administered questionnaire which comprised their socio-demographic characteristics and pattern of mobile phone usage. Results: Among the total 229 students, all of them had their own smart phones. Major purpose of using mobile was for calling, listening music, taking photos/videos and internet use. Most of the students 97 (42.4%) have owned mobile phones since 4-6 years. The median time spent by the students on the mobile phone using different features of mobile phone was 3.5 hours. Majority of the students i.e. 157 (68.5%) use mobile phones at night. The median amount of money spent on recharge per month was 500. Age of student was significantly (P <0.05) associated with calls per day. There was no significant association of pattern of mobile phone use with other selected socio-demographic variables Conclusions: Students were found to use mobile phone excessively. The pattern of mobile phone usage among the students in this study may signal the evolution of mobile phone use from a habit to an addiction.


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