Nomophobic Prevalence and Academic Achievement of Higher Secondary Students Practicing Blended Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction: Smartphone usage for academic and non academic processes increased among the adolescent students, especially among Higher Secondary students. This increased usage developed a kind of addiction among them towards the smartphones and other mobile gadgets. The mode of delivering learning experiences also changed due to the pandemic and this makes the need of the current study. Aim: To identify the smartphone addiction termed as nomophobia and academic achievement of higher secondary students during blended learning activities which known for the mixing of appropriate theories, methods and technologies to optimise learning in a particular context. Materials and Methods: A standardised nomophobic rating scale utilised to check the extent of smartphone addiction among the higher secondary students. Their academic achievement is identified using an achievement test in the relevant subject. The higher secondary students from Kerala constitute the population of the current study and 30 among them practicing blended learning activities are selected for the study in a convenient manner. Results: The results show that students are more prevalent to the smart phone addiction during the blended learning process. The male students show a higher level of smartphone addiction when compared to their female counterparts while academic achievement does not differ with respect to gender. Locality of the higher secondary students has no significant role on their nomophobic prevalence and academic achievement. Nomophobic prevalence correlated negatively with academic achievement but not at a significant level. Conclusion: This study reveals the major issues about the need for adequate supervision of adolescent mobile phone usage especially during blended learning. It also emphasises the need and importance of timely interventions from teachers, parents, and professionals as the learning process shifted to blended methods after the pandemic among higher secondary level.

Smartphone Abuse Amongst Adolescents: The Role of Impulsivity and Sensation Seeking

Adolescence is the stage of development where the reward and emotional regulation systems are yet to be adjusted and where most excessive behaviors start, like smartphone abuse. In addition, in this evolutionary period adolescents are more susceptible to behavioral changes through specific interventions or educational programs. Thus, it is fundamental to analyze the personality profile of those adolescents showing excessive mobile phone usage to properly approach later prevention strategies. Impulsivity is one of the most repeated variables associated with teenage addictions, although it has been observed that not all impulsive behaviors need to be detrimental. The aim of this study is to analyze how impulsivity affects smartphone addiction directly, but also indirectly, by assessing its association with sensation seeking variables (thrill and adventure seeking, experience seeking, disinhibition, and boredom susceptibility) which are in turn decisive when using these technologies improperly. The sample was made up of 614 adolescents aged 13–18 attending secondary education from Burgos, Spain. Dickman Impulsivity Inventory, Sensation Seeking Scale, and Ad-hoc questionnaire on adolescent self-perception as to smartphone use were applied. Results show that 41.4% of participants admit to abusing smartphones sometimes, while 18.3% admit to abusing them more frequently and 24% to, at least ever, having defined themselves as smartphone addicts. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that gender (female), dysfunctional impulsivity and sensation seeking (disinhibition and thrill and adventure seeking) evidence 15.7% of variance in smartphone abuse. In addition, sensation seeking (thrill and adventure seeking, disinhibition, and boredom susceptibility) were found to mediate the relationship between dysfunctional impulsivity and smartphone abuse. Therefore, dysfunctional impulsivity was directly connected with teenage smartphone abuse, but also had an indirect stronger association through thrill and adventure seeking, disinhibition and boredom susceptibility.

High Throughput Metagenomic Analysis Exposes Mobile Phones as Potentially Hazardous Microbial Platforms Warranting Robust Public Health and Biosecurity Protocols

Introduction. Advancements in technology and communication have revolutionised the 21st century with the introduction of mobile phones and smartphones. These phones are known to be platforms harbouring microbes with recent research shedding light on the abundance and broad spectrum of organisms they harbour. Mobile phone use in the community and in professional sectors including health care settings is a potential source of microbial dissemination.Aim. To identify the diversity of microbial genetic signature present on mobile phones owned by hospital medical staff.Methods. Twenty-six mobile phones of health care staff were swabbed. DNA extraction for downstream next generation sequencing shotgun metagenomic microbial profiling was performed. Survey questionnaires were handed to the staff to collect information on mobile phone usage and users’ behaviours.Results. A total of 11259 organisms derived from 26 phones were found with 2096 genes coding for antibiotic resistance and virulent factors. These organisms corresponded to 5717 bacteria, 675 fungi, 93 protists, 320 viruses, 4456 bacteriophages. The survey of medical staff showed that 46% (12/26) of the participants used their mobile phones in the bathroom.Discussion/conclusion. Mobile phones are vectors of microbes and can contribute to microbial dissemination and nosocomial diseases worldwide. As fomites, mobile phones that are not decontaminated may pose serious risks for public health and biosecurity.

Predicting regional COVID-19 hospital admissions in Sweden using mobility data

The transmission of COVID-19 is dependent on social mixing, the basic rate of which varies with sociodemographic, cultural, and geographic factors. Alterations in social mixing and subsequent changes in transmission dynamics eventually affect hospital admissions. We employ these observations to model and predict regional hospital admissions in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic. We use an SEIR-model for each region in Sweden in which the social mixing is assumed to depend on mobility data from public transport utilisation and locations for mobile phone usage. The results show that the model could capture the timing of the first and beginning of the second wave of the pandemic 3 weeks in advance without any additional assumptions about seasonality. Further, we show that for two major regions of Sweden, models with public transport data outperform models using mobile phone usage. We conclude that a model based on routinely collected mobility data makes it possible to predict future hospital admissions for COVID-19 3 weeks in advance.

A Descriptive Study to Assess the Impact of Mobile Phone Usage on Human Behaviour Among Undergraduate Students of Lucknow

Background of the study: Students were found to use mobile phone excessively. The pattern of mobile phone use among the students may signal the evolution of mobile phone use from a habit to an addiction.[5] Usage of mobile phones adversely affect student concentration, psychosocial wellbeing and their physiological health which are areas that need attention. The problem is that the use of mobile phone among students has become a habit.[3] Research shows that there is a difference between students’ performance and commitment to academics in lecture rooms from those who use mobile phones during lecture, inattentiveness, and non- participation in academic assignments or field work.[7] Findings of a study indicates that mobile phones play a large part in the daily life of medical student. Therefore, its impact on psychological and health should be discussed among the students to prevent the harmful effects of mobile phones use.[8] Objective of this study is to assess the impact of mobile phone usage on behavior change among undergraduate students and to find out the association between the impact of mobile phone usage on behavior change among undergraduate students with the selected demographic variable. Materials and Methods: Descriptive research design was utilized in this study. Through non discriminative snow ball sampling technique 100 undergraduate students of different disciplines like medical, engineering, agricultural and other science were selected for this study. Self-administered online questionnaire was used to gather the data from the participants. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyze the data. Results: impact of mobile phones among 1% of undergraduate students is mild, 94% of undergraduate students had moderate impact and remaining 5% of them reported that the impact of mobile phone on their human behavior is severe. The overall mean impact score was 91.21 and obtained SD was 22.34. Conclusion: Results of this study shows that the usage of mobile phone has moderate to severe impact among the behavior of the undergraduate students. Though the need of mobile phone is inevitable there needs have to be balanced between time spent with these devices, and without them. Without a set balance, people will continue to become more obsessed and consumed by technology, and there is a concern that humans will lose all closeness and affection that can come from personalized conversations.

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

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.