Effects of Cell Phone Conversation on Visual and Auditory Reaction Time in Students of a Medical College in Bangalore

Abstract

Background: In today’s era cell phone usage has become so rampant and its being used while doingdifferent task like driving, working in laboratory or office without realizing the distractions these cell phonecan cause. People are not aware of the consequences these distractions can lead to & also the harmful effectsof electromagnetic radiations emitted by the cell phone.Objective: To study the distracting property of cell phone use by assessing the visual reaction time instudents of a medical college while conversing over the cell phone. To know the effect of long term use ofmobile phone on visual and auditory reaction time based on history of no of hrs of phone usage per day. Tofind out gender difference in VRT & ART .Methodology: study population consist of 90 medical students, aged above 18yrs who were using mobilephones were selected randomly. After taking informed consent VRT & ART was recorded using PC 1000reaction time apparatus .student was allowed to converse on phone for 5 min during which VRT wasrecorded. After completing the conversation, once again ART & VRT was recorded. Data was analyzedstatistically using SPSS version 22.Results and Conclusion: Mean VRT was significantly high during conversation when compared toconversation before. In comparison with gender, males have faster reaction time compared to females.So we conclude that simultaneous use of cell phone causes distractions and reduces visual cognitionperformance leading to undesirable consequences. Dual tasking should be avoided and everyone should beeducated to use mobile phone cautiously.