Evaluation of Social Media Use Disorder in Medical Faculty Students

Abstract

Abstract Background Recently, social media usage disorder has become a behavioral addiction with the internet which has entered our daily life rapidly. One of the important factors considered to be associated with social media use disorder is thought to be loneliness. The aim of the study was to evaluate the social media use disorder in medical school students. Methods This study is a cross-sectional study conducted on the students who were studying in Eskisehir Osmangazi University Faculty of Medicine between January 2 and February 28, 2019. The study group consisted of 422 internet user students. The level of social media usage was assessed by Social Media Disorder Scale (SMD-scale). The level of loneliness was evaluated with the short-form of the UCLA Loneliness Scale (ULS-8). Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis, Spearman correlation analysis were used. Results Of the participants 226 (53.6%) was male. The age of the study group ranged from 17 to 29 years and the mean (SD) was 19.78 (1.33) years. The scores obtained from SMD-scale ranged from 0 to 63, with a mean of 12.18±10.35 (median = 9.0). All students had at least one social media account. In the study, no difference was found between the scores obtained from gender, age group, father’s education status, family income status and family type. While the scores of the students whose mothers have a university education level are lower; those who spent more than 2 hours a day on social media had a higher score. There was a weak positive correlation between the scores obtained from SMD-scale and ULS-8 (p < 0.001, r = 0.215). There was a weak negative correlation between the scores obtained from the SMD-scale and the academic grade point average (p = 0.012, r = -0.123). Conclusions It is concluded that the correct use of social media can be increased by informing about this issue. Increasing platforms such as student clubs in which individuals could socialize in real life may be useful in reducing this disorder. Key messages Public health studies could help prevent social media use disorder transform into more serious health problem in future. Further studies are needed to determine the effects of social media use disorders on mental and physical health.