Nomophobia and determinants among the students of a medical college in Kerala

Abstract

Background: Smartphones today have become an important part of our technoculture, especially among the younger population. Discomfort, anxiety, nervousness, or anguish caused by being out of contact with a mobile phone is termed as “Nomophobia”- no mobile phobia. Nomophobia is on the rise across the globe. Objectives: To find out the prevalence of nomophobia and its determinants among students of a medical college. Materials and Methods: This was a crosssectional study conducted among the students of a medical college of Wayanad. The prevalence of nomophobia was assessed using the new nomophobia questionnaire (NMP-Q). Results: The prevalence of nomophobia was 97%. The grades of nomophobia showed no statistically significant association with sex, admission quota, and residence (P = 0.909, 0.399, 0.56) whereas statistically significant association with phase of the MBBS (P = 0.001) with highest prevalence among phase II students. 99.06% students were using smart phones for calling family members, 91.84% for calling friends and 88.57% for listening to music. Conclusions: There was high prevalence of nomophobia among the students of the medical college. Nomophobia was not found to be associated with sex, quota of admission, place of origin, and place of stay. The most common reasons for smartphone use were calling of family members.