Use of Social Networking Site and prevalence of Depression among Medical Students in Vikarabad, Telengana

Abstract

Background: Humans are social creatures that require the company of others in order to thrive in life. As a result,although being socially connected with other people might help to reduce stress, anxiety, and melancholy, a lack of socialconnection can put one’s mental health at danger.Objective: To study and establish correlation between the use of Social Networking sites and depression among medicalstudents in a single center study.Methods: A cross-sectional research was done among 200 medical college undergraduate students. A systematicquestionnaire was used to obtain data about medical students’ individual characteristics and use of social media sites.The Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale were used to assess anxiety and depression. The prevalence was calculated as apercentage, and the association was assessed using the Mann-Whitney U-test.Results: Association between frequency of use of SNS and Depression is more in students who use 1-3 times in a day 20%and in the students who used atleast 1hr it is 19.23% ,in students who use 4-7 times is 15.38% whereas in students whouse 8-23 times it is 17.54%. The students who were awake early morning and used SNSs often was more 25% than thosewho were awake sometimes (15%) and never (18%) similarly the students who spent late nights in using SNSs was moreamong who were often awake late night (25%) than those who were awake late night Sometimes (14.6%) and never (19%).Conclusion: The current study found that SNS use was nearly ubiquitous among study participants, with the majority ofthem being heavy SNS users. A large percentage of medical students show a strong preference for SNSs. Intense usage ofsocial media sites, especially use at unusual hours, was shown to be strongly (although not statistically significant) linkedto depression. Despite the fact that the problem is still relatively new, it is significant enough to warrant attention. To solvethe complicated relationship between social media use and mental health concerns, further study is needed.