Cell Phone Users Research Articles

0493 Daytime Sleepiness in Children with Asthma: Is it really the lungs?

Abstract Introduction Insufficient nocturnal sleep is the most common reason of excessive daytime sleepiness. Children with asthma are at increased risk for sleep disruption secondary to nocturnal respiratory symptoms and medication effects, as well as more common behavioral pediatric sleep challenges. Not yet clear is the relative contribution of asthma severity versus behavioral factors to daytime sleepiness in a sample of children (8-17 years) with asthma. Methods This survey-based study was conducted in the outpatient pulmonology clinic at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware between 2018-2021. Children with asthma were eligible if they had a diagnosis of asthma, spoke English, and did not have a developmental disorder. Participants completed four surveys: Pediatric Daytime Sleepiness Scale (PDSS, higher scores=more sleepiness), Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PEDS-QL, higher scores=better quality of life), PROMIS Pediatric Anxiety short form (higher scores=more anxiety symptoms), and an investigator-designed survey assessing sleep-related technology use. Asthma factors (e.g., asthma severity, lung function [FEV1], number of prescribed asthma medications) were obtained from the electronic medical record. Descriptives and multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify asthma severity and behavioral predictors of daytime sleepiness, controlling for demographics. Results Study participants (N=100) were mean age 12.1 years [SD=2.6], 54% male, and 45% Black. Persistent asthma was common (87%), with a mean of 4.2 (SD=2.5) prescribed asthma medications, and mean FEV1 of 97% (SD=17.8). On behavioral surveys patients scored: PDSS (M=14.13; range=0-31; SD=6.7), PEDS-QL (M=77.38; range=15.6-100; SD=18.6), and PROMIS (M=14.92; range=8-35; SD=7.2). 74% reported cell phone usage within 1 hour of bedtime. Multiple regression models showed that an increased number of prescribed medications (beta=0.168, p=0.042), lower patient-reported quality of life (beta=-0.310, p=0.004), increased anxiety symptoms (beta=0.203, p=0.05) and bedtime cellphone use (beta=0.290, p=0.003) were significantly associated with daytime sleepiness in children with asthma. Conclusion A greater number of behavioral than asthma severity factors related to daytime sleepiness in children with asthma. Strategies to reduce anxiety and bedtime cellphone use may be plausible behavioral targets to improve sleep in children with asthma. Further research to examine these associations longitudinally, and in children with more severe asthma, is warranted. Support (If Any) None

How Do You Deal With Cell Phone Usage?

The Volunteer Management ReportVolume 27, Issue 6 p. 3-3 Roles and Responsibilities How Do You Deal With Cell Phone Usage? Erin Sandage, Erin SandageSearch for more papers by this author Erin Sandage, Erin SandageSearch for more papers by this author First published: 06 May 2022 https://doi.org/10.1002/vmr.31882Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume27, Issue6June 2022Pages 3-3 RelatedInformation

KELUHAN MUSKULOSKELETAL PENGGUNA LAPTOP DAN SMARTPHONE PADA MAHASISWA STIKES INDONESIA PADANG SELAMA STUDI FROM HOME DIMASA PANDEMIC COVID-19 TAHUN 2021

The implementation of educational policies in education as during emergency period of the Corona virus disease (Covid-19) includes home and online learning, which requires the use of supporting technology such as cellphones, computers, and tablets. The increasing number of hours spent on laptops or cellphones will have a variety of consequences, one of which is musculoskeletal issues. According to direct interviews, 3 out of 5 respondents had muscle issues after attending online lectures on a laptop or smartphone. The goal of this descriptive research was to describe the description of musculoskeletal symptoms caused by the usage of laptops or cellphones among students in the HKK StikesI study program's 2019 class. Time and place From April to November 2021, this study was conducted at STIKesI Padang with a population of 90 students from the 2019 HKK study program. A total sampling method was used to collect data using a Nordic Body Map questionnaire that was sent via an internet form. According to the results, 12.2 percent of respondents had moderate to severe musculoskeletal symptoms. Students with musculoskeletal difficulties should take a break after online learning and stretch their muscles to avoid uncomfortable learning positions and settings when studying online.Keyworlds: Learning online (SFH), Laptop, Musculoskeletal System (MsDs).

Assessing personal travel exposure to on-road PM2.5 using cellphone positioning data and mobile sensors.

PM2.5 pollution imposes substantial health risks on urban residents. Previous studies mainly focused on assessing peoples' exposures at static locations, such as homes or workplaces. There has been a scarcity of research that quantifies the dynamic PM2.5 exposures of people when they travel in cities. To address this gap, we use cellphone positioning data and PM2.5 concentration data collected from smart sensors along roads in Guangzhou, China, to assess personal travel exposure to on-road PM2.5. First, we extract the trips of cellphone users from their trajectories and use the shortest path algorithm to calculate their travel routes on the road network. Second, the travel exposure of each user is estimated by associating their movement patterns with PM2.5 concentrations on roads. The result shows that most users' average travel exposures per hour fall within the range of 20 ug/m3 to 75 ug/m3. Travel exposure varies across users, and 54.0% of users experience low travel exposure throughout the day, 25.5% of users experience high travel exposure in the evening, and 20.5% of users experience high travel exposure in the afternoon. Furthermore, the impacts of on-road PM2.5 on urban populations are uneven across roads. More attention should be given to roads with high PM2.5 concentrations and traffic flows in each period, such as Huan Shi Middle Road in the morning, Inner Ring Road in the afternoon, and Xinjiao Middle Road in the evening. The findings in this study can contribute to a more in-depth understanding of the relationship between air pollution and the travel activities of urban populations.

Young drivers and cellphone distraction: Pattern recognition from fatal crashes

More than 30% of cellphone-distracted fatal crashes occurred to drivers younger than 25-years-old in 2018, even though they constitute less than 12% of total licensed drivers in the U.S. Using joint correspondence analysis (JCA), this study analyzed six years (2014–2019) of cellphone-related fatal crashes involving young drivers based on the data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). This unsupervised learning algorithm can graphically display the co-occurrence of variable categories in a lower-dimensional space by effectively summarizing the knowledge of a complex crash dataset. The Boruta algorithm was applied to select the relevant features from the preliminary crash dataset. The empirical results of JCA manifest a few interesting fatal crash patterns. For example, young male drivers in light trucks were involved in deadly collisions while performing specific cellphone activities (other than talking and listening), cellphone-related fatal crashes occurred to young females with prior crash records, and so on. Apart from alcohol and drug involvement, this study identified young drivers’ additional risk-taking maneuvers while engaged in cellphone usage, including: disregarding traffic signs and signals, speeding, and unrestrained driving. The associations could guide the safety officials and policymakers in developing appropriate engineering, education, and enforcement strategies when dealing with cellphone-distracted young drivers.

Temporal analysis of cellphone-use-involved crash injury severities: Calling for preventing cellphone-use-involved distracted driving

With the popularity of smartphones and the increasing dependence on cellphones, cellphone-use-involved distracted driving has become a global traffic safety concern. Calling, texting, or watching videos while driving could have harmful impacts on driving abilities and increase crash-injury severities. To investigate the temporal stability and the heterogeneity of cellphone-involved crash injury severity determinants, a series of likelihood ratio tests and random parameters logit models with heterogeneity in means and variances are estimated. Cellphone-involved single-vehicle crash datasets of Pennsylvania from 2004 to 2019 are utilized. Marginal effects are also applied to investigate the impact of explanatory variables on injury severity outcomes. The results indicate an overall temporal instability of cellphone-involved crashes across different periods. However, driving without seatbelts and overturns are observed to produce relatively stable and positive influence on the increased injury severities of cellphone-involved crashes. Besides, it is noteworthy that a combination of cellphone usage with risky driving behaviors (aggressive driving, alcohol- or drug-related driving, speeding, or fatigue driving) significantly increase driver injury-severities. This finding highlights the necessity of identifying drivers with multiple risk-taking behaviors and enacting laws to prohibit these drivers from using cellphones while driving. Applications of smartphones provide another feasible approach to prevent using cellphones while driving. Insights and suggestions of this study would be valuable to mitigate the negative outcomes of cellphone-involved crashes and prevent the crashes caused by cellphone-involved distracted driving in the future.

Present but Absent in the Digital Age: Testing a Conceptual Model of Phubbing and Relationship Satisfaction among Married Couples

This study is the first to explain the determinant factors of phubbing—checking cell phone during a conversation or while spending time with a significant other—and its effect on the relationship satisfaction of both partners. It is also aimed at determining whether gender and relationship length play moderating roles in a relationship. The study adopted the media displacement theory and the interdependence theory to build a conceptual model of these variables. This cross-sectional research was conducted using an online survey with 741 voluntary married participants from Saudi Arabia. Upon analysis, the data confirmed that problematic usage of cell phone, Internet, social media, games, and SMS had a positive effect on phubbing. Interestingly, it showed that both the sample’s and their partner’s relationship satisfaction increased in line with phubbing behavior. Several theoretical and practical contributions have resulted from these findings.

Customers' Perspectives on the Nepalese Cellular Telecommunications Services' Technological and Innovation Capabilities

The extent of technological capabilities (TCs) and innovative capabilities (ICs) to which service organizations like cellular telecommunications assist to enhance organizational effectiveness (OE) in the Nepalese context needs to be explored. The study's objective was to assess the Nepalese cellular telecommunication (NCT) industry's technological and innovation capabilities from customers' perspectives. The study's outcomes were based on survey data gathered from 385 cell phone users of the Nepalese cellular telecommunication industry (NCTI). The survey had 18 inquiries, and its reliability, validity, and common method bias were tested accordingly. The NCTI's technological and innovative capabilities were analyzed through the lens of four observed TCs' variables and five observed ICs' variables. The latent measures – TCs and ICs were found to positively and significantly affect the OE. The study's outcomes would provide a meaningful understanding and offer valuable information regarding the OE measurement system. JEL Classification:L25 Firm Performance: Size, Diversification, and ScopeL84 Personal, Professional, and Business ServicesM41 Accounting Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 9, Issue-1: 41-47.

Health and information disparities among non-adopters of smartphones

ObjectivesMobile health technologies have gained increasing popularity in the healthcare industry, even though inequity in their adoptions has been documented. This study aimed to describe sociodemographic and clinical vulnerabilities among non-adopters of smartphones, identify their alternative ways of seeking health information, and explore potential outreach venues to these individuals. MethodsSmartphone users, basic cell phone users, and nonusers of mobile devices were identified from the 2019 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS). The three groups were compared on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Their health information seeking outcomes were compared in latent factor models, path models, and multinomial regression models. ResultsCompared to smartphone users, the nonusers were more likely to be older, less educated, have lower income, speak English less well, have a chronic condition, report poorer health, have lower self-care efficacy, and less likely to have family and friends to talk about their health. In the covariate adjusted models for health information seeking characteristics, compared to smartphone users, basic cell phone users and nonusers of mobile devices showed persistent disparities (less tendency) in search of health information with technology (p’s<.001) and access to online medical records (p’s <.01). Nonusers of smartphones were more likely to report no internet access and feeling uncomfortable with computers as the reasons not to access online medical records. ConclusionmHealth technologies may create additional barriers to health equity in the absence of equitable distributions of socioeconomic resources and access to mobile devices and the Internet. Education and training are warranted to make technology beneficial to the vulnerable population.

Analyzing the Moderating Effect of Perceived Brand Image in Creating Customer Loyalty: A Case of Indian Telecom Industry

Service providers in Indian telecommunication industry are now facing lots of challenges for their sustainability in tough competition because of varying wants of customers. Provision of quality service, initiatives of public relationship programmes, and generation of timely customer satisfaction are now of major concerns. In addition to these, positioning a proper brand image in customers’ mindset is equally important. The present study investigates all these factors of service business concerns to know the key determinants of achieving appropriate customer loyalty. Around 214 numbers of cell phone users were surveyed through a structured tested questionnaire in the state of Odisha, India and then all collected responses were analyzed through structural equation models. Study results showed that perception on public relation moderated by brand image has no role in creating customer loyalty. Again, after introduction of brand image as moderator, the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction becomes insignificant. However, customer satisfaction plays a major role in the variation of customer loyalty.

Clinical and Dermoscopic Evaluation of Periorbital Melanosis.

Background:Periorbital melanosis (POM) describes the light-to-dark-colored, brownish-black pigmentation surrounding the eyelids. It can affect an individual’s quality of life. Dermoscopic features of POM are not frequently reported in the literature.Materials and Methods:This study comprised 100 patients aged above 16 years, who attended our outpatient department (OPD) from November 2018 to October 2019. A detailed history, clinical features, and the dermoscopic study of color, pattern of pigment, and pattern of the blood vessel were recorded with the Dermlite-3N dermoscope (3Gen, San Juan Capistrano, California). On the basis of the eyelids’ pigmentation and involvement, patients were clinically graded as Grade 0 to 4, with 4 being deep dark color extending beyond the infraorbital fold. The clinical patterns and the dermoscopic features were correlated.Results:Most patients were women (76) and the common age group was 16–25 years. Most of the patients had both the eyelids involved (58%), followed by lower eyelids (28%). The majority of the patients were having POM of grade 2 (47%). Seventeen patients (17%) had a positive family history of POM. The most common clinical form of POM observed was constitutional type (77) followed by postinflammatory type (12). Of 100 patients, 52 had pigmentary, 15 had vascular, and 33 had mixed pigmentary-vascular pattern. Cell phone usage (>4 h) and refractory errors (38% each) were the common risk factors observed. Stress and respiratory allergy were significantly associated. In the pigmentation patterns, epidermal (54%), dermal (14%), and mixed (17%) subsets were observed. The reticular pattern was the most common vascular pattern (65%).Conclusion:POM is a multifactorial entity. Multiple risk factors play a role in the pathogenesis and aggravation. Clinical forms did not show any specific dermoscopic patterns. Dermoscopy of POM helps to know the underlying pathology, which in turn paves the way to the effective treatment.

Environmental awareness factor of used cell phones

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Electronic equipment production is one of the major industrial sectors in Indonesia, as it also contributes to Indonesia’s export commodities, which increase because of rapid technological developments. Cell phones, which have considerable potential to become electronic waste, recorded the enormous escalation in electronic production. This research aimed to increase community involvement and the collection of used cell phones from households in e-waste management in Indonesia. A survey was conducted to explore a household’s environmental awareness and willingness to recycle based on sociodemographics, environmental hazard awareness, and used cell phone usage in Jabodetabek, Indonesia.METHODS: In this research, a peer questionnaire was used and organized into five sections: The first section contained the sociodemographic details of the respondents. The second section comprised multiple concerns that relate to recycling and environmental awareness. The third section contained the family cell phone information. The fourth section determined the cell phone consumer behavior. The fifth section consisted of willingness to recycle. Statistical correlations between variables were assessed, and the chi-square independence test was used to evaluate the statistical correlations. FINDINGS: Mostly the households will replace their used cell phone if there is damage (66.84%) and keep the used cell phone at home (59.5%), thus becoming an obstacle in applying the appropriate recycling system and a circular economy. The average cell phone ownership in Jabodetabek is 1.28 units, and the average cell phone life span of people in Jabodetabek is 2.6 years. The Environmental Hazard Awareness variable has significant differences with occupation and income level (p-value = 0.028 and 0.046), Used Cellphone Usage variable has significant differences with the income level variable (p-value = 0.024). The others, a statistically significant difference between sociodemographic variable and Willingness to Recycle was observed; p-value = 0.003 for age and p-value = 0.034 for occupation. CONCLUSION: This paper showed that Environmental Hazard Awareness and Willingness to Recycle have an important role in increasing the collection of used cell phones from households. . This study assessed community-based factors located in urban areas. The factors could encourage their participation in collection activities, obtain information on the preferred collection channels of residents, and provide a perspective for managing cell phones through an analysis of the improvements and influences of Indonesia’s current e-waste recycling program. Therefore, to develop a new strategy, the findings of this study can provide insights into the e-waste problem and citizen’s awareness of e-waste management.

Mobile Phone Usage and its health impacts

The frequency of mobile phone usage has been on the rise in past few decades around the world. This trend has even much increased in last 2 years of COVID-19 pandemic. Whole scenario of work, education, entertainment has been totally changed and shifted from physical activity to online mode. People have started doing everything on mobile phones via applications e.g. booking a car, ordering a food, taking lectures, playing games, consulting a physician, doing zoom meetings and entertainment is also restricted to online activities. In one way its positive that everything is just one click away and you don’t have to go out even for grocery shopping. On the otherhand, people have become very lazy and have stopped all kind of physical activities which has impacted adversely on their health.&#x0D; It is often argued by some that increased cell phone usage has resulted in the rise of psychological and physical issues among the youth, well they are right to much extent. Although, people who use social media sites more than usual, they feel that they are relaxed but actually that is just an illusion for a time being. Sleeping patterns of the people has been totally disturbed who used mobile phone excessively. The have been sleeping in odd timings and therefore eating randomly. Hence, this is an eye opener for the society and authorities that excessive and un checked usage of mobile phone has caused many mental and physical health issues. We must take firm measures to educate, train and motivate people towards an active and healthy life style.

Analisis Metode K-Medoids Pada Penjualan Produk Smartphone Vivo Di Kota Pematangsiantar

Globalization is a very promising era of openness and freedom, where a communication which is a means to obtain information is expected to be carried out easily and effectively. One of the communication media in question is a cellphone. The users of cellphones or cellphones used to be limited to the elite, but for now it has begun to penetrate various circles of society ranging from students, university students, civil servants and even ordinary people who have used it... K-Medoids Clustering is one of the one technique of one of the data mining functionality, the clustering algorithm is an algorithm for grouping a number of data into certain data groups (clusters). While data mining, often referred to as Knowledge Discovery In Database (KDD) is an activity that includes the collection, use of historical data to find regularities, patterns or relationships in large data sets aimed at finding out the Vivo Smartphone brand that is selling well in the market so that it can be done. early procurement. From this study, it was found that Vivo smartphones with the brand S1 Pro 8+128, V17 Pro, V19 8+128GB, V19 8+256GB, Y11 2+32GB, Y12 3+64GB, Y17 4+128GB, Y19 6+128GB are brands which sold a lot. With the results obtained can provide information to PT. Vivo is improving its service even better by increasing the stock of Vivo smartphones which are in great demand, especially in the city of Pematangsiantar

The Relationship between Cellphone Usage and Sleep Quality among Hospital Staff

Purpose: Despite the two decades of using cell phones, there are still considerable controversies about the biological effects of the Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs) produced by cell phones. Sleep disorder among hospital staff is an important issue for the health care system not only due to the health of its employees but also to the reduction of the staff performance quality and the increase in medical errors. This study aimed to explore factors that may affect the sleep quality of hospital staff and to examine the association between sleep quality and cell phone usage. Materials and Methods: In this study, participants consisted of 288 employees (35.51 ± 8.42 years old) of two hospitals, and their sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh sleep quality index. Results: Sixty-six percent of participants had good sleep quality and nearly 68% of the employees worked in shifts. The cell phone use among participants averaged 10.74 ± 3.03 years, and less than half of the staff stated that call durations of their cell phones were less than 5 h/day. More than 90% of the staff mentioned no use of hands-free. There were no statistically significant differences between job characteristics, sleep quality, and items related to cell phones, except the use of hands-free. Conclusion: In our study, using hands-free during phone calls was associated with poor quality sleep. Different factors, such as decreased levels of electromagnetic fields reaching the brain, can be involved in this effect. These results must be interpreted with caution due to the low number of subjects and the limitations of our study.

Ocular and Extraocular Symptoms among Medical Undergraduates with Cellphone Addiction, A Cross-sectional Study

Aim: To find out the frequency of ocular and extraocular symptoms due to cellphone use among the medical students.&#x0D; Study Design: Cross-sectional study&#x0D; Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted in private and public sector medical and dental colleges of Karachi from January 2019 to September 2019. &#x0D; Methodology: Self-designed, self-explanatory questionnaire was used to collect data. The setting for the collection of the data has been classrooms, common rooms, cafeteria and open sports areas of the medical and dental colleges which has been surveyed by the different team members of the group. The data was analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.&#x0D; Results: The mean age of the study participants was 21.2 ±1.82 years, among them majority was female i.e. 60.25%. Participants were having different degrees of blurred vision, eyestrain, dry eyes, eye redness and irritation, difficulty in refocusing the eyes and double vision with frequency of 17.25%, 24.25%, 9.5%, 10.75%, 9% and 5% respectively. Respondents during the survey stated that they were having different physical problems apart from disturbance in eyesight. About 39.75% respondents complained of varying degree of headache and or migraine. 36% were having pain in neck, shoulder or back while 25.25% were having variable degree of fatigue. About 21.5% complained pain in fingers and wrist, 9.5% complained of hand stiffness and their inability to grip or hold any other thing properly.&#x0D; Conclusion: It has been concluded that cellphone usage has serious ocular and extraocular hazards so there is a need to limit its usage as it is affecting the physical and mental health of the students.

Level of Cellphone Usage and Academic Performance

This descriptive research paper was conducted to find out the level of cellphone usage and the English academic performance of the AB English students of the Northern Iloilo Polytechnic State College, Estancia, Iloilo. The respondents were the 46 AB English students, 16 of which were the first year and 30 were the fourth year AB English students enrolled in the first semester AY 2018-2019, classified according to sex and year level. The statistical tools used were mean, frequency counts and percentage, t-test, Pearson r. The researcher made questionnaire underwent the validity and reliability testing. Researcher made questionnaire were classified into two parts: Part I, the personal data sheet which include the questions name, sex and year level. Part II has 30 item-cellphone usage questionnaire. It was generally found out that AB English students have always level of cellphone usage. In view of these findings, it can be concluded that the level of cellphone usage of the AB English students when taken as an entire group was always but when classified as to sex, female always used their cellphone while males used their cellphones sometimes. The study also showed that first year AB English students have sometimes level of cellphone usage while the fourth year AB English students always used their cellphones.

Impact Assessment of Driver Distraction by Cellphone on Start-up Lost-time and Average Saturation Headway at Signalized Intersections Based on Vehicle Position in the Queue

Cellphone usage has a significant impact on signalized intersections' capacity and level of service. This study investigated the impact of cellphone usage on signalized intersection capacity and level of service in Dammam Metropolitan Area, Saudi Arabia. The data included 183 useful cycles and 2407 start-up lost time and average saturation headway values at cycles with cellphone usage and cycles without cellphone usage at 24 signalized intersections. The main hypothesis of the study is that cellphone usage increases the start-up lost time at signalized intersection capacity. The secondary hypothesis is that cellphone usage increases the average saturation headway at signalized intersections. Normal distribution and z-test were conducted to assess whether there is a significant increase in average saturation headway and start-up lost time. The study found a significant increase in start-up lost time of about 0.7 seconds but found no significant increase in average saturation headway due to cellphone usage. Also, start-up lost time increases as vehicles of cellphone users get closer to the stop line of the signalized intersections. Thus, cellphone usage decreases the progression of 13 vehicles per hour due to a reduction in effective green time, increases total delay, and deteriorates the level of service. The study can assist transportation and traffic officials to optimize signal operation to mitigate the impact of cellphone usage and improve urban transportation.

Mobility and phone call behavior explain patterns in poverty at high-resolution across multiple settings

Call detail records (CDRs) from mobile phone metadata are a promising data source for mapping poverty indicators in low- and middle-income countries. These data provide information on social networks, call behavior, and mobility patterns in a population, which are correlated with measures of socioeconomic status. CDRs are passively collected and provide information with high spatial and temporal resolution. Identifying features from these data that are generalizable and able to predict poverty and wealth beyond a single context could promote broader usage of mobile data, contribute to a reduction in the cost of socioeconomic data collection and processing, as well as complement existing census and survey-based methods of poverty estimation with improved temporal resolution. This is especially important within the context of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), where poverty and related health indicators are to be reduced significantly across subnational geographies by 2030. Here we utilize measures of cell phone user behavior derived from three CDR datasets within a Bayesian modeling framework to map poverty and wealth patterns across Namibia, Nepal, and Bangladesh. We demonstrate five metrics of user mobility and call behavior that are able to explain between 50% and 65% of the variance in socioeconomic status nationally for these three countries. These key metrics prove useful in very different contexts and can be readily provided as part of an existing CDR platform or software package. This paper provides a key contribution in this regard by identifying such metrics relevant to estimating poverty. We highlight the inclusion of ancillary data and local context as an important factor in understanding model outputs when targeting poverty alleviation strategies.

Barriers to Effective Utilization of Teaching-Learning Methods: A Qualitative Study Using Focus Group Discussions among First-Year Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery Students in a South Indian Medical College

Background: Lecture, practical, and dissection classes have been the mainstay of teaching in first-year bachelor of medicine, bachelor of surgery (MBBS) courses. Competency-based medical education (CBME) implemented by the National Medical Commission (NMC) in 2019 aims to improve teaching-learning experiences and outcomes. A clear idea about attitudes and perceptions of students toward the present teaching-learning methods will help better implement CBME. Objectives: (1) To find the attitudes and practices of first-year MBBS students toward lecture, practical, and dissection classes, using a focus group discussion (FGD) as a tool of a qualitative study. (2) To analyze the factors that prevent active students from participating in different teaching-learning methods in pre-clinical subjects. Methods: This qualitative study using an FGD was performed after obtaining the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) approval in 36 first-year MBBS students, both female and male, divided into six groups. Written informed consent for the audio recording was obtained. A semi-structured interview guide with open-ended questions was used. The FGD was recorded, transcribed in spoken language, and converted into English. Content analysis was performed, key concepts were extracted and coded manually, and common themes were generated. Results: The following seven themes emerged: (1) Attendance being prioritized by students, (2) Note-taking done as a chore during lecture classes, (3) The time duration of the lectures as a hindrance to effective learning, (4) Inadequacy of self-directed learning, (5) Preference of practical sessions over theory sessions, (6) Cell phone usage as a reason for not being attentive in the class, and (7) Interest in interactive methods. Conclusions: This study identifies factors that impede the utilization of teaching-learning methods by medical students. The CBME model addresses many of these problems. Further studies on students under the new curriculum will help refine our teaching-learning methods. The strength of this study is the FGD sessions conducted by a medical student, which would have put the participants at ease.