Smartphone use and the quality of life of medical students in the Kumaun Region, Uttarakhand

Abstract

Background: Once a device for telecommunication, now a powerful device bringing the whole world in one's palm, smartphones are increasingly becoming a common commodity among the medical students. Smartphones foster social interaction and facilitate multitasking and learning, but they also have some adverse effects. Young people, especially students, who are always inquisitive towards new technology, are likely to be affected by both these positive and negative impacts. Objective: To assess smartphone use and its association with the quality of life (QOL) of medical students. Materials and Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the undergraduate medical students of Government Medical College (GMC), Haldwani. All the students enrolled in MBBS course in GMC, Haldwani, who gave consent for participation and were present on the day of questionnaire administration, were included in the study. Smartphone addiction scale (SAS-SV), and WHO-BREF questionnaires for QOL were used for assessing smartphone use, and QOL of the medical students, respectively. Results: A total of 395 medical students were included in the study; out of them, 42% considered themselves addicted to the smartphone. According to SAS-SV, smartphone addiction was found among 43.8% medical students. It was seen that the junior-most and senior-most batches were significantly less addicted to the smartphone (p-value < 0.001). Male students were more addicted (OR = 1.45, CI = 0.962–2.174) to the smartphone as compared to females. The QOL of the students was significantly affected by smartphone use in all domains assessed (p-value ranging from < 0.001 to 0.002). Conclusions: Smartphone addiction is high among medical students and it has a significant negative impact on their QOL.

Assessment of MBBS students’ attitudes on social media use: A cross-sectional study in Government Medical College and Hospital, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu

“…[13][14][15] Earlier studies reported that in south India, the prevalence of smartphone addiction is less. 16 However, in our study, we have observed a higher prevalence of over usage of smartphones by medical students. Interestingly, it was reported that female students use more time than males.…”

The relationship between mobile phone addiction and depression, anxiety, and sleep quality in medical students

“…A study (Beck et al, 1988) The mentioned differences between some of the previous studies and those of the present research can be attributed to the differences in the questionnaires measuring smartphone addiction. In the present study, MPAS was used to measure mobile phone addiction, but the Smartphone Addiction Scale designed by Kwon et al was employed in most of the studies mentioned above (Kwon et al, 2013a;Chen et al, 2017;Alhazmi et al, 2018;Awasthi et al, 2020). Moreover, in the Persian version of MPAS, whose reliability and validity were examined by Mazaheri et al (Mazaheri and Karbasi, 2014), scores below 30 were classified as lack Based on Chi-square test.…”

“…In the present study, MPAS was used to measure mobile phone addiction, but the Smartphone Addiction Scale designed by Kwon et al . was employed in most of the studies mentioned above (Kwon et al ., 2013a; Chen et al ., 2017; Alhazmi et al ., 2018; Awasthi et al ., 2020). Moreover, in the Persian version of MPAS, whose reliability and validity were examined by Mazaheri et al .…”

Impact of smartphone on mental health among medical undergraduates: A cross-sectional study

“…Our findings are potentiating the findings of a cross-sectional study conducted among the undergraduate medical students of GMC Haldwani, which showed that smartphone addiction is high among medical students and has a significant negative impact on their QOL (quality of life). [ 26 ] For depression, 56.6% of participants showed no depressive symptoms, while 15.6% had symptoms for mild depression, 16% for moderate depression, and 11.6% for severe and extremely severe depression, which is alarming as nearly 43.3% of participants showed depressive symptoms. The reason for above above-noted prevalence can be multifactorial.…”