scholarly journals Assessment of mobile phone problematic usage and associated health related symptoms among medical students at Goa Medical College

Author(s):  
Varsha M. Bhamaikar ◽  
Abhishek Bicholkar ◽  
Jagadish Cacodcar

Background: Mobile Phones can be considered as one of the essential socio-personal utility with diverse features but its overuse may have negative consequences on health. The objective of the present study was to assess the prevalence of mobile phone problematic usage among the medical students and to study the association of health related symptoms and problematic mobile phone usage.Methods: A total of 250 medical students were included in this study. Data regarding the sociodemographic factors and perceived health symptoms related to mobile phone use was collected on a predesigned, structured and self-administered questionnaire. Mobile phone problem use scale (MPPUS) was employed to assess the problematic usage of mobile phone and students were classified into following four categories - casual users (<74), regular users (75-143), at risk users (>143-<179) and problematic users (>179).Results: The total prevalence of problematic users was 22% (17.2% at risk, 4.8% problematic users). Eye strain, concentration difficulties, memory disturbances, morning tiredness, headache, sleep disturbances, painful fingers and restlessness were significantly associated with at risk and problematic users.Conclusions: Multiple health symptoms were associated with problematic use of mobile phones among the medical students. MPPUS is a useful tool which can be used to identify problematic usage of mobile phones.

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.


Author(s):  
Nagapraveen Veerapu ◽  
Ravi Kumar Baer Philip ◽  
Hanisha Vasireddy ◽  
Sowmya Gurrala ◽  
Swathi Tapaswi Kanna

Background: Social media and digital communication have become a part of life. Many things were made easy through online connectivity. The mobile phones not only connects people at anytime, anywhere and with anybody, but also movable and portable. Mobile phones when used extensively may cause a number of physical and psychological problems. Nomophobia (NO-MObile phone-PHOBIA) is one of the psychological problems related to exclusive use of mobile phone. It is the fear/anxiety of being away from mobile phone contact. The objectives are to study grading of nomophobia and to find out any correlation exits between nomophobia and sleeping difficulty and anxiety among medical students.Methods: A cross sectional study is conducted for duration of 6 months among medical students using semi-structured questionnaire. Nomophobia questionnaire (NMP-Q) is used to assess nomophobia, Athens insomnia scale is used to assess sleeping difficulty and general anxiety disorder- 7 Item scale is used to assess general anxiety.Results: The study showed that out of 364 students, 62 (17%) have mild, 234 (64.3%) have moderate and 68 (18.7%) have severe nomophobia. There is a weak positive correlation between nomophobia and sleeping difficult and anxiety.Conclusions: There problem of nomophobia is alarming; there is a need to reduce nomophobia, and to evolve effective strategies to enhance human interaction.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 2934-2935
Author(s):  
Nadia Tufail ◽  
Huda Abbas ◽  
Ali Sarfraz ◽  
Sumaira Ashraf ◽  
M. Ashraf Majrooh

Aim: Prevalence and determining factors of refractive errors among the medical students in FMU, Faisalabad. Methodology: Cross-sectional quantitative study conducted in Faisalabad Medical University from 01-03-2020 to 15-12-2020 after approval from institutional review committee. All students of MBBS in FMU were included in this study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the required quantitative information. SPSS version 26 was used for analysis. Results: Prevalence of refractive error is 49%. Females were 59% and males were 41%. More students i.e. 85.2% were suffering from myopia. In our study, usage of electronic devices i.e. mobile phones especially was one of the risk factors in developing refractive errors. 20.6% students having refractive error said that they use mobile phone for 4 hours, 30.2% having refractive error said that they watch TV for one hour, 23.3% having refractive error said that they play video games for one hour. For the correction of the refractive error, 184 students i.e. 97.4% used spectacles whereas only 5 (2.6%) students used contact lenses. It is observed in this study that contact lenses were only used by those students having refractive error <1.5. Conclusion: Refractive errors were a significant cause of visual impairment among medical students. The prolonged use of electronic devices especially mobile phones should be discouraged. Keywords: Refractive errors, myopia, electronic devices, mobile phone


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Keith McInnes ◽  
Gemmae M Fix ◽  
Jeffrey L Solomon ◽  
Beth Ann Petrakis ◽  
Leon Sawh ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Homeless veterans have complex healthcare needs, but experience many barriers to treatment engagement. While information technologies (IT), especially mobile phones, are used to engage patients in care, little is known about homeless veterans’ IT use. This study examines homeless veterans’ access to and use of IT, attitudes toward health-related IT use, and barriers to IT in the context of homelessness. METHODS: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 30 homeless veterans in different housing programs in Boston, MA. Inductive thematic analysis was used. RESULTS: Most participants (90%) had a mobile phone and were receptive to IT use for health-related communications. A common difficulty communicating with providers was the lack of a stable mailing address. Some participants were using mobile phones to stay in touch with providers. Participants felt mobile-phone calls or text messages could be used to remind patients of appointments, prescription refills, medication taking, and returning for laboratory results. Mobile phone text messaging was seen as convenient, helped participants stay organized because necessary information was saved in text messages. Some reported concerns about the costs associated with mobile phone use (calls and texting), the potential to be annoyed by too many text messages, and not knowing how to use text messaging. CONCLUSION: Homeless veterans use IT and welcome its use for health-related purposes. Technology-assisted outreach among this population may lead to improved engagement in care.


Author(s):  
Sweta Sinha ◽  
Manjula S. Patil

Background: The mobile phone is viewed as an important communication tool and is an integral part of the human society in the present era. Medical students use smart phones for note taking, imaging, web browsing, text books, question banks etc. Excessive mobile phone use has been found to be associated with health problems such as impaired concentration, headache, fatigue, thermal sensations in and around ear, stress, sleep disturbances and frustration. Objective was to explore the mobile phone usage pattern and its health effects among medical students.Methods: An observational study was conducted among medical students of Belagavi. The calculated sample size was 277 after taking the prevalence of mobile phone usage pattern of 76.4%. The questionnaire consists of socio-demographic characteristics, pattern of mobile phone usage like mode of use, time of maximum use etc. and the health effect variables like headache, restlessness, neck pain, painful fingers etc. Statistical analysis was done using MS-Excel 2007 and SPSS v 22, proportion and chi-square test was applied and p<0.05 was considered significant.Results: 98.19% were using smart phone and 85.56% were having single phone. Maximum were using for 2-4 years (42.60%). Internet was used for academic purpose in 89.89%. Majority of them experienced eyes symptoms (55.23%) followed by sleep deprivation (46.21%) and headache (42.60%).Conclusions: Even though mobile phone has positive role in our daily lives, its overuse leads to negative impact on health, sleep, and academic performance of students.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laite Chen ◽  
Chen-Yang Jiang

BACKGROUND Smart phones containing medical related apps have been applied to medical practice and proved to be helpful by previous studies. However, no attention has been paid to the use of mobile phone and medical related apps among foreign medical students(FMSs) in China. OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to investigate the utilization of mobile phones with medical apps among FMSs in WMU. METHODS A survey of FMSs was conducted in Wenzhou Medical University (WMU). Data from questionnaire include the major obstacles FMSs face in China; the acceptance and preference of medical related apps in FMSs; the patterns of medical related app usage within FMSs. RESULTS This study included ninety-three FMSs, all of whom owned at least one mobile phone. Most owners had more than one medical related app. No difference on gender or operating system was found in utilization of apps. 55% of FMSs reported using medical related apps on a daily basis, among which, 65% of them spent more than 20 minutes on medical related apps everyday. CONCLUSIONS Mobile phones were highly applied among FMSs in WMU. With more effort in app designing, smart phones could be a possible solution for necessary aid in learning medicine overseas.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Darvishi ◽  
Majid Noori ◽  
Mohammad Reza Nazer ◽  
Soheil Sheikholeslami ◽  
Ebrahim Karimi

BACKGROUND: Today, mobile phones are recognised as an inseparable part of our daily lives, facilitating communication between users. Based on the studies, addiction to cell phones can lead to several complications including depression, anxiety, anger, and aggression. AIM: This study aimed to investigate nomophobia (no mobile phone phobia) among medical students of Islamic Azad University, Tehran Branch. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 students studying in different majors of medical sciences in Islamic Azad University, Tehran Branch, from 2016 to 2017. Demographic data of all participants were recorded in a data sheet. In the next stage, a questionnaire was designed by the researcher to evaluate the effect of age, gender, education, and the duration of using cell phone variables on discomfort, anxiety, and insecurity due to lack of access to cell phone or other related issues. Raw data were analysed using SPSS statistical software version 21. The significance level was considered P < 0.05. RESULTS: The results of the study showed that participants with lower mean age felt more discomfort, anger, anxiety, and insecurity due to lack of access to mobile phones and other related issues compared to other people. However, no variable was statistically significant (P-value > 0.05). Except anxiety, results showed that longer duration of mobile phone use might lead to a significant decrease in discomfort, anger, and insensibility variables among users (P-value > 0.05). The incidence of nomophobia (with its different aspects) was significantly lower in females (P-value > 0.05). Also, in participants with higher educational status, the nomophobia was recorded to be more frequent (P-Value > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Understanding the pattern of nomophobia occurrence among cell phone users can facilitate our path to prevent its harms including discomfort, anger, anxiety, and feeling of insecurity among users of technology.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-45
Author(s):  
Laibah Safdar ◽  
Nayyab Khan ◽  
Mehjabeen Qureshi

Background: Nomophobia is defined as “The discomfort or anxiety felt when out of the mobile phone (MP) or computer contact. It is the fear of becoming technologically incommunicable, distant from the mobile phone or not connected to the web”. The frequency of nomophobia has increased over the past years and this condition has many negative consequences. The objective of our study is to find the frequency of nomophobia among medical students of Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU).Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out at Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU) over the course of one year. The inclusion criteria were medical students of all five years of MBBS studying at RMU. Students who do not own or use a smart-phone were excluded from the study. Our sample size was 350 students, who were recruited by convenience sampling. For this study, The Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q)has been used which has 20 items. Each item is scored on a 7 point Likert scale. The total score ranges from 20 to 140. Results: The mean NMP-Q score of the male students was 82.96 (±21.06) and that of the female students was 78.52 (±23.69), with a p-value of 0.065, which is insignificant. Out of the total 350 students, the number of students with a mild level of nomophobia was 61(17.4%), with a moderate level of nomophobia was 216(61.7%), and with severe nomophobia was 73(20.9%).Conclusion: Measures are needed to be taken on both public and personal level to counter this issue of nomophobia, which is becoming highly prevalent in our society.


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