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.

Prevalence of Refractive Errors among Medical Students and Identification of Associated Factors

Objective: To determine the prevalence of refractive errors among medical students and identify associatedfactors.Study Design: Analytical, cross-sectional study.Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in the Department of Community Medicine at AkhtarSaeed Medical and Dental College, Lahore from September 2020 to December 2020.Materials and Methods: The study included 300 medical students using convenience sampling technique. Aself- structured pre- tested questionnaire was used. All medical students including MBBS, BDS, Pharm –D andallied health sciences were included in the study. Those students who did not give consent were excluded fromthe study. Data analysis was done with SPSS version 23. Chi square test of significance was applied to findassociation between the variables and p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: Refractive error was observed in 203 students (67.7%). The commonest refractive error was myopia(37%) followed by hypermetropia (23.7%) and astigmatism (7%). The prevalence of refractive errors wassignificantly associated with positive family history (p value=<.001), family income per month (p value=0.01)and mobile use per day (p value=0.001). Higher percentage of refractive error (70.6%) was reported byparticipants who were comfortable with light in which they study (p value=0.03).Conclusion: The prevalence of refractive error was 67.7% among medical students, and myopia was the mostprevalent refractive error. Refractive errors were significantly associated with positive family history, familyincome and mobile use per day.

Sleep disturbances, mobile use and metabolic syndrome in college students

Adolescents and young university students tend to sleep less than adults and children and this could be related to new lifestyles such as greater use of electronic devices and produce greater health risks. Los adolescentes y los jóvenes universitarios suelen dormir menos que los adultos y los niños y esto pudiera relacionarse con nuevos estilos de vida como mayor uso de dispositivos electrónicos y generar mayores riesgos a la salud.

DÜRR NDT: a Leading German Manufacturer of Digital Radiography Equipment

DÜRR NDT provides ultra-high resolution computed radiography (CR) scanners, flat panel detectors, innovative software solutions and X-ray film processors for mobile use plus DÜRR NDT’s unique ‘green’ X-ray chemistry.