The Association between Symptoms of Nomophobia, Insomnia and Food Addiction among Young Adults: Findings of an Exploratory Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

No previous research has examined the association between symptoms of nomophobia and food addiction. Similarly, only a few studies have examined the association between nomophobia and symptoms of insomnia. This exploratory study utilized an online self-administered, structured questionnaire that included: basic sociodemographic and anthropometrics; the nomophobia questionnaire (NMP-Q); the insomnia severity index (ISI); and the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) in a convenience sample of young adults (18–35 years) in Bahrain (n = 654), 304 (46%) males and 350 (54%) females. Symptoms of severe nomophobia, moderate-severe insomnia, and food addiction were more common among female participants both for each disorder separately and in combination; however, differences did not reach statistical significance. For severe nomophobia, the rate for females was 76 (21.7%) and for males was 57 (18.8%) p = 0.9. For moderate-severe insomnia, the rate for females was 56 (16%) and for males was 36 (11.84%) p = 0.1. For food addiction, the rate for females was 71 (20.29%) and for males was 53 (17.43%) p = 0.3. A statistically significant association was present between nomophobia and insomnia r = 0.60, p < 0.001. No association was found between nomophobia and food addiction. Nomophobia is very common in young adults, particularly in females; nomophobia is associated with insomnia but not with food addiction.

The Prevalence of Nomophobia by Population and by Research Tool: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Meta-Regression

“…Notably, this finding is similar to the lifetime pooled prevalence of anxiety disorders, which is estimated to be 16.6% [95% CI 12.7%, 21.1%] [34]. The overlapping prevalence rates between anxiety disorder and nomophobia point to the potential bidirectional relationships between nomophobia and anxiety disorder, suggesting the importance of considering another psychiatric comorbidity when evaluating nomophobia and vice versa [8,10,29].…”

“…India contributed with seven studies [2,3,[15][16][17][18][19][20], Iran [21,22], Turkey [1,23], and Pakistan [24,25] contributed each with two studies, and Australia [26], Bahrain [8], Israel [27], Italy [28], Kuwait [29], and USA [30] each contributed with one study. Fourteen studies [2,[15][16][17][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][28][29][30] (70%) of the studies recruited university students as participants, while four studies [8,18,27,28] (20%) recruited young adults and only two studies [1,3] (10%) recruited high school students. The NMP-Q was used in 12 studies [1,3,8,17,19,[24][25][26]…”

“…Fourteen studies [2,[15][16][17][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][28][29][30] (70%) of the studies recruited university students as participants, while four studies [8,18,27,28] (20%) recruited young adults and only two studies [1,3] (10%) recruited high school students. The NMP-Q was used in 12 studies [1,3,8,17,19,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30] (60%), and the remaining used other method to assess the nomophobia, mainly researcherdeveloped research tools. Researcher studies reported the prevalence of nomophobia by severity-mild, moderate, and severe.…”

“…The core focus of this systematic review and meta-analysis is on severe nomophobia since it is associated with a serious impact on health because it promotes the development of mental disorders, personality disorders [10,31], and increases the risk of developing depression, anxiety, anger, aggressiveness [22], stress, nervousness [32], and sleep disorders [8,33].…”

“…Individuals with nomophobia share certain typical characteristics, such as the use of multiple mobile phones and chargers, the frequent monitoring of screens to check for notifications, and keeping mobile phones close to them during sleep [7]. People with nomophobia seem to avoid face-to-face interaction and prefer a world of virtual connection [7,8]. Various clinical manifestations have been observed in people labeled as having nomophobia.…”