A cross sectional study of usage patterns and effects of smart phone among the medical students of tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Mobile phone usage has become indispensible, especially among the youngsters. This has brought about psychological dependency towards mobile phones leading to addiction in them. Excessive use of mobile phones is known to be associated with head ache, ear ache, warmth sensations and also perceived concentration difficulties. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among the Medical undergraduate students of Department of Community Medicine, Katuri Medical College, Guntur during the period of January 2021-June 2021. A convenient sample of 150 medical students were considered for this study. Participants were selected through Simple Random Sampling technique of 150 in number and a pre-designed, semi-structured questionnaire was self-administered to each student. All students who were willing to participate were included in the study. Data was entered and analysed with MS Excel and SPSS. Results: The study population included 150 medical under graduates. The mean age of the study population was 21.3 ± 1.2 years. There were 39.7 % males and 60.3 % females. Around 8% of the subjects had no siblings and 65% of them had only one sibling. The per capita income was ranging from 2000 to 50,000 per month. Around 11.3% had per capita income more than 30,000 and 20.7% had more than 20,000. Conclusion: The pattern of use differs between males and females. Usage for social networking is more among females. Usage after midnight and chatting with strangers is more prevalent among males. Behaviours like getting annoyed/restless when interrupted, are a point of concern. Factors like using the smartphone till late in the night might cause less sleep which might lead to less concentration in the classrooms. Also, the usage while in classroom is very high, this might also affect their concentration on studies. Symptoms like headache, eyestrain and stress were found in majority of the students after using the smartphone for a long time. All these factors might affect their concentration, academic performance and also their health in the long run. In the existing scenario the need of the hour is to educate and create awareness among the students about the ill effects of over usage of smart phone, not only on their health but also on their studies and life style.