ABSTRACT
Background: Smartphone usage has become increasingly popular in recent decade. Though it’s of great utility in many aspects, excessive usage among youth has shown increased restlessness, careless lifestyles and greater susceptibility to stress. Aim & Objective: To assess the pattern and purpose of smartphone usage and its dependence among medical students. Methods & Material: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted among 363 MBBS students of 1st, IInd and IIIrd professional year at a government medical college. A 20-item self-administrated questionnaire, focusing on purpose and pattern of use of smart phone and its dependence was filled by all the students. Data was collected, entered and analysed using SPSS Software. Result: Among 363 students, 53% participants were males and rest were females. 80% students were using smartphone for more than 2 years, while 60% were having daily usage of more than 3 hours. Significant association between severity of smartphone dependence and variables like MBBS professional year, daily phone call made and received, daily SMS received, daily WhatsApp message sent and received were observed. Dependence was mild in 8.8% of the students; Moderate in 72.2% while 19% were suffering from severe smartphone dependence. Conclusion: Smart phone dependence is an established and emerging psychological issue which needs attention and intervention. It is of serious concern that all medical students were suffering from smartphone dependence with varying grades of severity. Increased awareness regarding the harmful effects of smartphone addiction is the need of hour.
ABSTRACT
Background: Juvenile is a boy who has not attained 16 yrs and a girl who has not attained 18 yrs. Any offence thefts/robbery, attempt to murder/murder, rape, addictions and any deviation from normal behavior like truancy, vandalism, immorality and ungovernability is termed as delinquency. According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) (2016), Telangana is holding 16th rank and among the metropolitan cities, Hyderabad is contributing to 11th rank based on percentage share in India on Juvenile crime. The objective of the study was to study the factors influencing the juvenile delinquency.Methods: An institutional based cross-sectional study is carried out for a period of three months in the Government Juvenile homes of Hyderabad, Telangana. All the inmates of the male and female juvenile homes (n=200) available at the time of study who were willing to participate were interviewed. Those who were sick and not cooperative were excluded. A semi-structured questionnaire completed through interviews and studying the subjects’ records and ISRD3 questionnaire were used. Institutional ethical clearance was taken before starting the study.Results: 77.5% (155) were males and 22.5% (55) were females. 16.5% (33) were 6-10 yr age group and 83.5% (167) were above 11 yrs. The mean age (yrs) is 14.02±2.96. 18% (36) didn’t attend school and 82% (164) attended school. Age, sex, school attending and the time spent with the parents have shown significance (p<0.05) in the delinquency.Conclusions: The peer influence, smart phone usage, influence of movies and truancy from home also showed significance (p<0.05) in the delinquency.