Smartphone Usage Patterns Research Articles

Smartphone usage patterns and health effects: a case study in university students, Thailand

Smartphone usage patterns and health effects: a case study in university students, ThailandABSTRACTSmartphones are mobile communication devices that are increasing in the number of users worldwide. The study aims to analyze usage patterns and the health effects related to smartphone usage among university students in Thailand. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in five regions in Thailand. Five hundred thirty-two university students who use smartphones participated in the study. A prepared questionnaire was used for this study. The average age was 20.34 ± 1.44 years old that participated in this study. The averaged time spent using mobile devices were 6.12±5.64 hours/day. The most popular application used was social networking (98.1%). Mostly, the participants used their smartphone in their bedroom (99.1%). The positive health effects of using smartphones were reported to be as follows: an increased feeling warmness with other people (95.3%), increased relaxation (80.6%), and increased happiness (80.1%). The negative health effects consisted of, but not limited to, eye pain (90.2%), misunderstanding with other people (92.5%), shoulder or neck pain (82.3%), and boredom (78.9%). The university students among the five regions in Thailand had significant differences in smartphone use patterns and health effects. Consequently, the intervention to reduce the health effects should be considered.Keywords: health effects; smartphone; university students

CaIAuth: Context-Aware Implicit Authentication When the Screen Is Awake

Relieving users from the burden of remembering and inputting authentication information explicitly, such as passwords/PINs and lock patterns, implicit authentication mechanisms have gained an increasing concern. When providing authentication, the existing implicit methods only depend on a specific behavior, such as typing on the screen, performing gestures, or taking a walk. However, in real applications, a user’s behavioral characteristics are also decided by the context where behavior is performed. Thus, those existing methods show limited authentication accuracy and usability. To address these issues, we propose CaIAuth, a reliable context-aware implicit authentication framework, which profiles users’ behavior and context characteristics in a holistic fashion. It observes the states of context-sensing entities for different smartphone usage patterns and builds a context-aware model to distinguish between legitimate users and illegal ones. We conducted extensive experiments to evaluate system performance with a large data set collected from 142 subjects. The experimental results show that our system achieves a low equal error rate (EER) (e.g., less 7%) and is resilient against common threats, including zero-effect attack and mimicry attack. In addition, CaIAuth achieves a low authentication delay and overhead.

How Growing Older Leads to Different Patterns in Smartphone Usage Among Genders

The present study investigates the moderating role of age on the differences in smartphone usage patterns by gender. Therefore, a literature review is first made to verify the differences in smartphone usage patterns by gender, as well as the role of age in the relationship between gender and smartphone usage patterns. Based on these reviews, the moderating effects of age are hypothesized in the relationship between gender and smartphone usage patterns. The empirical study includes smartphone usage data from 9,566 individuals which reflected the actual use of smartphones. The relevant theoretical and practical implications are presented based on the study results.

Prevalence of Smartphone Addiction among University Students in Saudi Arabia: A Multicenter Study

Objective: To find out the prevalence of smartphones addiction among college and university students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and its association with demographic variables Methodology: A study was conducted in all provinces of KSA between December 2015 to June 2016. An electronic survey was sent to students’ clubs of various universities. Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS) was used which had 33 closed-ended questions. Total score of SAS was calculated and three categories of addiction was made: low, moderate, high. Questionnaire also included sociodemographic questions, and smartphone usage patterns and addiction behaviour. Results: The total number of participants was 1941 (response rate of 80.9%) students representing most of the provinces of Saudi Arabia. The prevalence of smartphones addiction was found to be 19.1%. Female participants were more addicted than males (p <0.001). Medical students were less smartphone-addicted than non-medical college students (p = 0.007). Inverse and significant relation between age onset of mobile usage with its addiction was found (p = 0.02). Conclusion: Prevalence of smartphone addiction found in the present study was not high. However, female and non-medical colleges students were found to be more addicted to smartphones. Those who started using smartphones at an early age were also found to be more addicted. Less awareness about harms of smartphones addiction could be one of the reasons of having high prevalence of addiction among non-medical students and those who started using at a younger age.&nbsp

Challenging the Concept of Smartphone Addiction: An Empirical Pilot Study of Smartphone Usage Patterns and Psychological Well-Being.

Smartphone use is ubiquitous, however, scholarly debate regarding the addictive nature of smartphones abounds. In this context, it is integral to distinguish between the content that users experience and the medium that facilitates access to the former, as users may experience addictive-like responses to the specific activities they engage in through the context experienced rather than the device that facilitates access to these activities. The present study aimed to explore conceptualizations of smartphone addiction by (a) investigating user preferences for specific smartphone functionalities, (b) examining behavioral changes associated with limited access to preferred functionalities, and (c) exploring links between aspects of smartphone use and self-reported psychological well-being. A total of 471 participants completed an online survey, providing data on sociodemographics, actual and hypothetical smartphone usage, and psychological well-being (depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms). The results showed that communication functionalities were most frequently cited as being preferred among smartphone users. Notably, participants reported that they would check their smartphones significantly fewer times if their top-three functionalities were inaccessible. This suggests that smartphone users are likely to become addicted to the functionalities they access on their smartphones (content) and not the smartphones themselves (medium), rendering unviable the notion of smartphone addiction as a construct. Further analyses suggested negligible to small correlations between aspects of smartphone use and psychological well-being variables. The findings imply that rather than focusing on frequency of smartphone use, it is recommended that future research examines the type and quality of specific smartphone usages and their effects on user well-being.

Internet, gaming, and smartphone usage patterns of children and adolescents in Korea: A c-CURE clinical cohort study.

Background and aimWhereas many studies on Internet gaming disorder (IGD) have used self-report questionnaires, only a few have adopted clinical interviews and samples. The current study aimed at using data from face-to-face diagnostic interviews, based on the criteria for IGD in the DSM-5, to determine the Internet, gaming, and smartphone usage patterns of children and adolescents.MethodsA latent class analysis was conducted using data collected through diagnostic interviews for Internet, gaming, and smartphone addiction with 190 participants (M = 13.14 years, SD = 2.46; 143 boys, 47 girls) who were part of a multicenter clinical cohort study.ResultsParticipants were classified into four groups: pleasure-seeking (Class 1), internal-use (Class 2), problematic-use (Class 3), and pathological-use (Class 4). The pleasure-seeking group (8.11%) showed low tendencies in general and proper control. The internal-use group (17.63%) showed significant increases in “cognitive salience” and “craving,” with strong internal desires. The problematic-use group (37.28%) had no “interference with role performance”; however, they displayed “difficulty regulating use” and “persistent use despite negative consequences,” with a slight functional impairment. The pathological-use group (36.98%) scored the highest on all these items, revealing a severe functional impairment. Compared to the other groups, the pathological-use group had the highest depression and daily stress levels and displayed the lowest levels of happiness.ConclusionsThis study provides basic data to elucidate Internet, gaming, and smartphone overuse patterns among children and adolescents, which could be used to develop differentiated intervention strategies for each group.

Smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) in psychiatric patients and student controls: A real-world feasibility study

BackgroundSmartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a promising methodology for mental health research. The objective of this study is to determine the feasibility of smartphone-based active and passive EMA in psychiatric outpatients and student controls. MethodsTwo smartphone applications —MEmind and eB2— were developed for behavioral active and passive monitoring. The applications were tested in psychiatric patients with a history of suicidal thoughts and/or behaviors (STB), psychiatric patients without a history of STB, and student controls. Main outcome was feasibility, measured as response to recruitment, retention, and EMA compliance. Secondary outcomes were patterns of smartphone usage. ResultsResponse rate was 87.3% in patients with a history of STB, 85.1% in patients without a history of STB, and 75.0% in student controls. 457 participants installed the MEmind app (120 patients with a history of STB and 337 controls) and 1,708 installed the eB2 app (139 patients with a history of STB, 1,224 patients with no history of STB and 346 controls). For the MEmind app, participants were followed-up for a median of 49.5, resulting in 22,622 person-days. For the eB2 application, participants were followed-up for a median of 48.9 days, resulting in 83,521 person-days. EMA compliance rate was 65.00% in suicidal patients and 75.21% in student controls. At the end of the follow-up, over 60% of participants remained in the study. LimitationsCases and controls were not matched by age and sex. Cases were patients who were receiving adequate psychopharmacological treatment and attending their appointments, which may result in an overstatement of clinical compliance. ConclusionsSmartphone-based active and passive monitoring are feasible methods in psychiatric patients in real-world settings. The development of applications with friendly interfaces and directly useful features can help increase engagement without using incentives. The MEmind and eB2 applications are promising clinical tools that could contribute to the management of mental disorders. In the near future, these applications could serve as risk monitoring devices in the clinical practice.

Predictors of problematic smartphone use among university students

Predictors of problematic smartphone use have been found mainly in studies on elementary and high school students. Few studies have focused on predictors related to social network and messaging apps or smartphone model. Thus, the objective of our study was to identify predictors of problematic smartphone use related to demographic characteristics, loneliness, social app use, and smartphone model among university students. This cross-sectional study involved 257 Brazilian university students who answered a smartphone addiction scale, a questionnaire about smartphone usage patterns, and the Brazilian version of the UCLA-R loneliness scale. Women, iPhone owners, and users of Instagram and Snapchat had significantly higher smartphone addiction scores. We found correlations between scores for the Brazilian version of smartphone addiction scale and the importance attributed to WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, and the Brazilian version of the UCLA-R loneliness scale. Our hierarchical regression model predicted 32.2% of the scores of the Brazilian version of the smartphone addiction scale, with the greatest increase in predictive capability by the step that added smartphone social app importance, followed by the step that added loneliness. Adding the smartphone model produced the smallest increase in predictive capability. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

The paradox of technology innovativeness and risk perceptions – A profile of Asian smartphone users

Risk perceptions and technology innovativeness are the two primary factors related to the adoption of mobile technologies. The current study examines the role of technology innovativeness and risk perceptions on smartphone use and dependence in an Asian context. A total of 9086 participants were recruited through online surveys from ten Asian countries. Ordinary least squares regression analyses revealed the effects of technology innovativeness, information security, privacy concern, and their interactions on smartphone use and dependence. Moreover, based on users’ smartphone usage patterns and perceptions, this paper identified four homogeneous groups using cluster analysis. Results shows that Asian smartphone users can be segmented into four groups: innovators, conservatives, moderators, and laggards. The four clusters show significant differences in demographic features. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed based on these findings.

Conceptualization of smartphone usage and feature preferences among various demographics

Smartphones have seen an exponential growth in their utility during the past decade. The study of mobile phone usage patterns as well as mobile phone feature preferences has been given due focus by the research community in the past. However, a comprehensive study targeting different population demographics is required for the assessment and evaluation of smartphone features, both from the consumer point of view and the vender’s perspective. This study aims to find correlation between the smartphone usage patterns and its features. The user demographics considered in this work include age, gender, marital status, education, profession, income level and geographical location of the smartphone users. The smartphone usage data for this research is collected through user surveys. The survey sought information regarding three key aspects of this study: the usage pattern of the smartphone users, their feature preferences and their demographic details. The key statistical parameters computed in this work include the mean and standard deviation of the replies given on the Likert scale against the usage of the features mentioned in the questionnaire. A normality test is performed by measuring the skewness and kurtosis of the collected dataset. The results for both kurtosis and skewness are found to be within the acceptable range, suggesting the data to be normally distributed. One-way ANOVA (analysis of variance) test is performed to identify the significant difference within the groups in relation to the usage of smartphone features. Finally, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is performed to identify the structure of the data and the underlying relationships. Singles, urban users, younger users, college and university graduates, professional degree holders and users with high-income level formed the group using the smartphone more frequently than their counterparts. Moreover, they were also found to be using advanced features like, social apps, Internet, camera and picture viewing on a daily basis. This work has identified smartphone features like disk space, RAM, device security camera and battery talk time as key preferences for a specific group of consumer.

Effects of Smart Phone Usage and Its Addiction Among College Students in Nagpur City

In today’s scenario, Internet and mobile phones especially smart phones are playing a vital role among students in their education and daily life’s. The use of smart phone became very popular for its effective educational, behavioural and entertaining features in their daily lifestyle and attitude towards their studies. However, usages of smart phone have positive and negative effects among students. More usage of smart phone generally makes the students addicted to it and that effect on student’s health, behaviour, attitude, thinking and academic performance. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to find out the various patterns of smart phone usage in their day to day life. And also aims are to identify the factors that affect the level of smart phone addiction to the students and its pros and cons on their overall academic performance and physical and mental health

Factors associated with smartphone addiction prevalence and its predictive capacity for health-related quality of life among Filipino adolescents

ObjectivesThe prevalence of smartphone addiction among adolescents is currently on the rise. Earlier studies focused on the impact of smartphone addiction on various aspects of life, but little is known about its capacity to predict an individual’s quality of life. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of smartphone addiction among Filipino adolescents and to investigate the relationship between smartphone addiction and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Furthermore, this study explored the differences between the smartphone addiction and non-smartphone addiction groups in terms of demographic profile, family environment, smartphone usage patterns, and HRQoL, and examined the predictive capacity of smartphone addiction on HRQoL above and beyond demographic profile, family environment, and smartphone usage patterns. MethodsThis cross-sectional study employed descriptive and hierarchical linear multiple regression analyses for the data obtained from 1,447 Filipino junior and senior high school students (males, n = 580; females, n = 867) through a Google forms online survey. ResultsWe found that the prevalence rate of smartphone addiction among Filipino high school students was 62.6% (males = 66.2%; females = 60.2%). A significant negative correlation between smartphone addiction and total HRQoL (r = −0.090; p < .01) was found in this study as well as with its subdomains: physical well-being (r = −0.106; p < .01), psychological well-being (r = −0.169; p < .01), and school environment (r = −0.072; p < .01), but not with the autonomy and parents (r = −0.001; p > .05) or peers and social support (r = 0.011; p > .05). Furthermore, significant differences were found between the smartphone addiction and non-smartphone addiction groups in terms of gender, hours spent on smartphones on weekdays and weekends, and frequency of smartphone use on weekends as well as total HRQoL and its subdomains: Physical well-being, psychological well-being, and school environment. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis reported that after entering smartphone addition in Model 4, it accounted for 3% of the variance in HRQoL (F(1, 1429) = 2.557, p < .05), which indicates that smartphone addiction significantly predicts HRQoL after accounting for demographic profile, family environment, and smartphone usage patterns. ConclusionsThis study clearly shows that the prevalence rate of smartphone addiction among Filipino adolescents is high. This calls for full awareness among parents as well as community educators and counselors regarding this issue and for the development of both community-based and school-based intervention programs to lessen the risk of smartphone addiction and its impact on the HRQoL of students.

Investigating the relationship between age and smart phone usage patterns: evidences from Indian smart phone users

This study intended to develop new categories of smart phone usage patterns in to three types such as professional, social and personal centric usage and tested the same among different age groups, i.e., young, middle, old, etc. with reference to finding the intentions of usage patterns among the selected age groups. The survey had been conducted among 150 Indian smart phone users belong to different age groups and the results revealed: 1) all age groups intended to use smart phones for personal usage; 2) young age group users intended to use smart phones for professional usage; 3) whereas middle age group and old age group users intended to use smart phones for social and personal usage, respectively. The implications of the outcomes were discussed.

Pattern of Smartphone Usage and Psychosocial Factors Affecting Smartphone Overdependence in Middle-Aged Women

Studies suggest that the prevalence of smartphone overdependence has increased in middle-aged individuals; however, little is known about factors that may influence smartphone overdependence among middle-aged women. This study assessed the patterns of smartphone usage and the psychosocial factors affecting smartphone overdependence in middle-aged women. Middle-aged women (n = 135) in South Korea completed the Smartphone Overdependence Scale, Ego Resiliency Scale, Profile of Mood States-Brief, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and Subjective Happiness Scale. The data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. The mean smartphone duration per use was 13.41 ± 10.82 minutes, the mean frequency of smartphone usage per day was 23.06 ± 20.29, and the most used smartphone function was messaging. Smartphone overdependence occurred in 13 (9.63%) of the 135 middle-aged women, and higher tension (OR = 1.34, p = .011), less vigor (OR = 0.83, p = .040), and less social support from significant others (OR = 0.40, p = .010) were significantly associated with an increased likelihood of smartphone overdependence. This study has value as a first step in examining smartphone overdependence and its psychosocial predictive factors among middle-aged women. A smartphone overdependence intervention for middle-aged women could include activities that reduce tension, increase vigor, and enhance offline social support.

Smartphone addiction and its complications related to health and daily activities among university students in Saudi Arabia: A multicenter study.

Aim:The aims of this study were to study the prevalence of smartphones addiction among college and university students in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), and to determine the risk factors and complications associated with smartphone addiction.Method:This study was conducted in all provinces of KSA from December 2015 to June 2016 by sending questionnaire to student clubs of various universities through Survey Monkey. Questionnaire included (1) sociodemographics, (2) smartphone usage patterns and addiction behavior, (3) impact of smartphone usage on driving and medical complications, and (4) smartphone addiction scale.Result:The total number of participants was 1941 (response rate 80.9%) students representing most of the provinces of Saudi Arabia. The prevalence of smartphones addiction was 19.1%. Female participants were more addicted than male participants (P < 0.001). Smartphone addition was also significantly associated with musculoskeletal complication, upper limb, eyes and sleep complications.Conclusion:High frequent usage with prolonged duration of smartphone was associated with high risk to addiction. Furthermore, smartphone addiction had significant impact on performing daily activities, sleeping disorder, and health problems. Awareness about harm of smartphones addiction is required to provide to students and parents as well. Smartphones should not be given at younger age and it only be given when a child can differentiate its healthy and productive use from addiction.

Gender differences in smartphone usage patterns of adolescents

The number of smartphone users throughout the world is increasing day by day. Even the age of smartphone access, too, is decreasing with time. Today, smartphone addiction is the most important concern of parents and caretakers of teenagers. The increasing time spent by teenagers on smartphone raises the concern why they spend so much time on it. The present research tries to explore gender differences in smartphone usage pattern of adolescents and therefore, tries to explore possible reasons for both genders for increasing smartphone addiction. The present study was conducted on a sample of 300 adolescents and findings suggest that females and males have significantly different pattern of smartphone usage. The present study also tries to explore causes of problematic smartphone usage among females (as they spend significantly more amount of time on smartphones than males) and possible solutions for the same.

Nomophobia: A Mixed-Methods Study on Prevalence, Associated Factors, and Perception among College Students in Puducherry, India.

Background:As more people are utilizing smartphones, nomophobia is also on the rise. Several Indian studies have revealed nomophobia among young adults. The severity of nomophobia and related behaviors is underrated and often go unnoticed in India.Methods:The sociodemographic characteristics, smartphone usage pattern, and perceived ill-health related to smartphone usage of the participants were obtained using a semistructured questionnaire. Twenty-item Nomophobia questionnaire was used to assess nomophobia. In-depth interviews were conducted among students with moderate and severe nomophobia scores.Results:Among the 774 participants, 23.5% had severe nomophobia scores. Older age, male gender, duration and frequency of smartphone usage, use for social networking, checking without reason, and checking smartphone after waking up in the morning were significantly associated with nomophobia. The in-depth interview showed attributes of addiction among the students, like dependency and compulsive behavior. Students also experienced anxiety and frustration when they had to part with their smartphones.Conclusion:A sizable minority of the students had signs of severe nomophobia, distinct patterns of usage, and misperceptions regarding health and their usage pattern.

Smartphone Usage Patterns among Older Adults in South Korea

Smartphone Usage Patterns among Older Adults in South Korea

Evaluation of the Levels of Nomophobia and Academic Stress among Medical Students

Background: Technology has been intruding into human’s daily life so much that most of us would develop dependence on it and so, smartphone is not exclusion. There has been increase in the usage of smartphone especially among student population for various reasons, which could foster addictive behaviors. Medical students are vulnerable population for such addictive behaviors probably due to tremendous academic pressure, where they find smartphone usage as way of escape & ease to relieve from ongoing stressful situations and so on. Objective: To determine the smartphone usage pattern, nomophobia and correlation of nomophobia with academic stress among medical students. Material and Methods: Second year & third year medical students were considered as subjects. Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) and Academic Stress Inventory (ASI) were administered. Results: Almost all the students in the study group had nomophobia but at different levels which includes Mild (24.7%), Moderate (65.8%) and Severe (9.3%) and slightly higher among female students. All the domains of the academic stress inventory showed statistically significant association with nomophobia i.e. there is a positive correlation between nomophobia and academic stress among medical students. Conclusion: Apart from various stresses which a medical student undergo, academic stress seems to be an important factor which could have great influence on Nomophobia [No-Mobile-Phobia] and can influence smartphone addiction. This study emphasizes the need for early interventions required to address the medical students in effectively managing their stress and reduce the chances of mobile phone addiction.

Factors Affecting Smartphone Usage Self-Report Levels.

For the treatment of smartphone addiction, it is important to understand users' smartphone usage patterns. Most of the studies are based on self-report surveys. However, there are differences between self-reported usage and real usage. For a better understanding of usage patterns, this study identified demographic and social factors that affect smartphone usage self-report levels. Also, it was confirmed that the influencing factors differ depending on the smartphone usage content by application category.