Prevalence of Mobile Phone Dependence (MPD) among Medical Students: An Observational study

Abstract

Today, we live in an era of Information and technology, where everything is available at the touch of a finger, and the speed of an electron. With the advent of the smartphone, new unbounded possibilities have opened up, bringing with them an array of mental, behavioural, and psychological problems. Aim Evaluation of the Prevalence of Mobile Phone dependence in Medical Students. A secondary aim involves finding out association of a factor, like age, sex, or years of usage with aforementioned dependence. Materials and Methods An observational survey was conducted, with an questionnaire for the students of a Medical College in Navi Mumbai (New Bombay), India. 340 students, from each of the 4 years from a Medical College in Navi Mumbai were selected for the sample. The students were randomly included, and criteria of having a mobile phone was applied. Participant information like age, gender, family type, phone type, duration of use per day and years of mobile phone usage was recorded. They were administered an MPD questionnaire based upon the dependence syndrome criteria as per ICD-10 criteria. According to their responses, participants who fulfilled three or more of the diagnostic criteria were rated as having MPD. Results The sample of 340 students was analyzed and the following results were obtained. ● Out of 340, 51 students matched the ICD-10 criteria, while 289 did not. At 95% Confidence Interval (CI), the prevalence was 15.04 ± 3.8 %. ● The mean age of all the students was calculated to be around 20.156 years. At 95% CI, we can say the mean age is 20.15 ± 0.15 years. Alternatively, it can be stated around 20 to 20.3 years. ● The percentage of males dependent were 17.30 ± 7.76 %, while for females they were 12.80 ± 7.36 %. ● Smartphone users were at 14.90 ±1.15 %, with the mean years of use sitting around 3.43 ± 0.27.