Effects of nomophobia on anxiety, stress and depression among Saudi medical students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

To assess the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress in medical students, and to analyse effects of demographics and nomophobia on depression, anxiety and stress. The descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the College of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from April 1 to May 23, 2019, and comprised male and female medical students aged 19-25 years. Data was collected using a demographic information form, the 21-item depression, anxiety and stress scale and the 20-item nomophobia questionnaire. Data was analysed using SPSS 20. Of the 230 students, 108(47%) were boys and 122 (53%) were girls. The overall mean age was 21.93±1.80 years. Anxiety, depression and stress was reported in 168 (74.6%), 158 (70.2%) and 127 (55.9%) of the students. Extremely severe anxiety, depression and stress were self-reported by 92 (40.9%), 38 (16.8%) and 16 (7.04%) students. There was a significant difference in the distribution of subjects within different levels of anxiety across gender (p<0.05). Higher anxiety and stress scores were observed in 78 (33.9%) students with severe nomophobia. Differences in the levels of anxiety and stress with regards to type of residence and nomophobia levels were significant (p<0.05). There was high prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress associated with gender, nomophobia levels and residence type.