Abstract
BackgroundIncreasing smartphone use among adolescents in todays’ world has made this handy device an indispensable electronic tool, however, it comes at a price of problematic overuse or addiction. We aim to investigate the prevalence of smartphone addiction among undergraduate medical students and explore its association with various demographic and personal factors.MethodsA pool of 250 undergraduate students completed a survey composed of socio-demographics information, smartphone-use related variables and 10-point Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version in February 2019.ResultsSmartphone addiction among medical students was estimated at around 36.8% with higher percentage of male smartphone addicts. Phubbing was reported by 37.6% participants with more than 60% reporting overuse. Statistically significant association was observed between smartphone addiction and gender and overuse. Self-acknowledgement of addiction was found to be the biggest predictor of smartphone addiction.ConclusionThis study provides preliminary insights into smartphone use, smartphone addiction and various factors predicting smartphone addiction among early undergraduate medical students from Nepal, which should be extended in future studies. Education policymakers and educators need to develop some strategies encouraging student’s smartphone utilization to enhance academic performance.
Highlights
Increasing smartphone use among adolescents in todays’ world has made this handy device an indispensable electronic tool, it comes at a price of problematic overuse or addiction
We aim to evaluate the status of smartphone addiction among medical undergraduate students of Chitwan Medical College and study its association with various demographic variables
Tolerance was observed in 42.8% participants who accepted peoples concern about excessive smartphone use (Table 2)
Summary
Increasing smartphone use among adolescents in todays’ world has made this handy device an indispensable electronic tool, it comes at a price of problematic overuse or addiction. With the advancement in science and technology, the way we live, our life style and everything including the way we remain connected to people, has changed drastically. The advances in telecommunication means has evolved our lives from simple to becoming complicated. People living in the lesser developed world have encompassed a massive transformation in mobile and internet technology. Smartphone has reached a substantial 2.1 billion people worldwide [1]. Internet service started with the beginning of the century and in less than 17 years, its penetration has reached over 58% and rising [3, 4]
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