The detrimental impacts of smart technology device overuse among school students in Kuwait: a cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Background Children and adolescents are becoming the most prolific users of smart technology (ST) devices due to the numerous advantages presented by these devices. However, the overuse of ST devices can have detrimental impacts on health. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the pattern of ST device use among school students in Kuwait and the possible associated health problems. Methods This cross-sectional survey used a pretested questionnaire to collect data from students of different educational levels within the governmental sector: primary, secondary and high school. Chi-square tests were applied to find associations or significant differences between the categorical variables, in which p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results This study included 3015 students, of whom 53.6% were female. The sample had an equal distribution of primary (33.8%), secondary (32.4%) and high school students (33.8%). Almost all of the participants (99.7%) owned a ST device, chiefly smartphones (87.7%). Most of the students used ST devices for > 4 total hours per day on average, which is categorised as “overuse”. Among those overusing ST devices, the symptoms most commonly experienced included headaches (35.0%), sleep disturbances (36.6%) and neck/shoulder pain (37.7%). Students who used ST devices for < 1 h per session experienced eye-related problems. Moreover, students who played sports on a regular basis were more likely to spend less time per session on ST devices. The prolonged use of ST devices was associated with higher reporting of seizures, eye squints and transient vision loss. Conclusion The overuse of ST devices per day and per session by school-aged children has the potential to have a detrimental impact on their health, as has been noticed among students in Kuwait. Healthcare professionals, school authorities and parents could use these results to plan strategies to change ST device use behaviours among schoolchildren.

Parents’ Attitudes Toward School Students’ Overuse of Smartphones and Its Detrimental Health Impacts: Qualitative Study

“…As technological applications develop and emerge, children come to depend on them and grow with them, resulting in a new generation with different health complaints, as this study shows. This was also consistent with a local study from Kuwait among school students, which showed similar health-related problems associated with SP overuse [ 45 ]. Most of the interviewed parents in this study stated that keeping abreast of technology is crucial but that the pattern of use must be well controlled to avoid harmful consequences.…”

“…The results indicated that numerous parents were apathetic toward their children's overuse of SPs, finding it too difficult to control. Children and adolescents typically have less self-control than adults and are easily distracted [12,13] [45]. Most of the interviewed parents in this study stated that keeping abreast of technology is crucial but that the pattern of use must be well controlled to avoid harmful consequences.…”

“…Some of the parents reported that their children's use of digital media via SPs had caused them some fear and insomnia, and the parents realized that the content of the media determined the level of impact. The relationship between the use of mobile devices and poor sleep has been reported in several previous studies [44][45][46]. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that parents monitor their children to control their overuse of SPs in order to avoid physical or mental health problems.…”

Smart devices/mobile phone in patients with epilepsy? A systematic review

“…The primary search yielded 7766 studies (PubMed, n = 1227; Scopus, n = 6470; Google Scholar, n = 69). Only 33 studies met all the inclusion criteria and were included in the current systematic review 15–47 (Figure 1). Table 1 shows a summary of these studies.…”

“…Among the animal studies, 10 articles suggested detrimental effects by electromagnetic fields (EMFs) on brain function/seizure activity (eg, mobile phone radiofrequency can induce seizures in rats following their facilitation by sub‐convulsive doses of picrotoxin 22 ), while nine studies negated this hypothesis or even showed beneficial effects of EMFs in animals (eg, extremely high frequency electromagnetic wave radiation suppressed generalized seizures in kindled rats 33 ). Among human studies, seven studies suggested detrimental effects by EMFs on brain function/seizure activity (eg, The prolonged use (>4h per day) of smart technology devices was associated with higher reporting of seizures 45 ), while seven studies negated this hypothesis (eg, acute GSM exposure in patients slightly influenced their EEG properties, without any clinical relevance 35 ). In one human study, all seven patients with epilepsy and abnormal EEG during the sham exposure, had an increase in the number of epileptic (interictal or ictal) events with exposure to mobile phone radiation 44 …”